Pablo Picasso

Picasso is a well-known and influential artists and the creator of Cubism. He was a very prolific painter, sculptor, printmaker, stage designer and ceramicist. Born in Malaga, Spain on October 25, 1881 Picasso believed that as long as he worked he would stay alive.
His father was a painter and an art teacher and he began to teach Picasso how to draw and paint. By the time Picasso was 13 his skill level was far beyond his father's. In 1895 Picasso moved to Barcelona where he applied to the School of Fine Arts. He did not fare well here, he was too immersed in drawing. He began running with a group of artists and intellectuals who convinced him to make a break from the classical methods and begin his own process of experimentation and innovation.
He moved to Paris in the 1900s and opened his own studio. This is the time when he painted sense of isolation, anguish and poverty ?€“ and in shades of blue and green. In 1905 Picasso introduced beiges pinks and reds in his painting. This is the period of Two Nudes (1906). In 1907 Picasso turn to Cubism with his painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon or a depiction of five nude prostitutes abstracted with sharp geometric features and blotches of blues, greens, and grays.
Examples of his early Cubist years include Three Women in 1907, Girl with Mandolin in 1910. His next works are even more Cubistic and include Still Life with Chair Caning in 1912 and Three Musicians in 1921.
WWI gave Picasso a different tone to his art. He returned to his classical roots and painted Three Women at the Spring in 1921 and The Pipes of Pan in 1923. From 1927 Picasso developed a philosophical movement known as Surrealism. His most famous work during this time is Guernica. Painted in white, grays and blacks the work is Picasso's testament to the horrors of war.
After WWII Picasso became a Communist and he was touted as an International Celebrity. His paintings became simple and with crude techniques. He created Self Portrait Facing Death using crayons and a pencil and the painting appears to be a human-ape with green face and pink hair. The expression in the eyes captures a lifetime of fear, uncertainty and wisdom.
Picasso continued to produce artworks until his dead on April 8, 1973 at the age of 91. He was married to Olga Khokhlova in 1918 and they divorced in 1927. In 1961 he married Jacqueline Roque. Picasso had four children by various women.