Pablo Picasso - born the artist

Pablo Picasso is still at the forefront of the art, the appreciation of many art connoisseurs and the appreciation of many art lovers, and in the sales, in the auction year 2013 (40 years after his death) he was one of the strongest artists.

This has been so for a long time, after all, he has "created art" for a long time (a simple "painted" is not enough for Picasso because he not only painted, but also made completely different works of art).

Everything that the cubist artist touched was good, exceptionally good, and whoever deals with him wants to know at some point why it is so, you seem to be able to learn something from your way of approaching a topic or an appeal.

Can you, for example, why good training is the best basis to not only become good in "your subject", but also to develop your own, independent assessment criteria and to further develop your area of ​​knowledge itself:

Picasso showed early plants for a talent for painting and drawing that it is said to have already used every sand surface as a toddler to paint pictures in the sand. This is done by several toddlers, but Picasso was just lucky with regard to the early promotion of his talent: his father was a painter and also worked as an art and drawing teacher at an art school school, he soon recognized the talent of his son and took the talent early.

It is certainly an extraordinary springboard when a talented child has parents who work (and also teach) exactly in the profession in which the child has his talent.

Such a chance of fate is not even a matter of course in children, whose parents practice direct postnatal talent promotion to an almost hysterical extent. Incidentally, it was not that, the little Pablo began early on under the guidance of his father, but was allowed to be a good time "child" beforehand, and early support in the baby age was not yet invented at the end of the 19th century.

So Picasso was allowed to play in peace until he was 7 years old, and only then did his father began to give him instructions while painting. With success, the first respectable oil picture has been handed down by the nine -year -old "Pablito".

"El Pequeño Picador" (the Little Picador), which was completed in 1890, shows a bullfighter in the arena - Pablo had been taken to bull fights by his father as a small child, this typical Spanish "initiative ritual into the world of masculinity" led to the fact that the artist was fascinated by bullfights all his life.

The "Little Picador" was probably the expression of a secret desired idea of ​​little Pablo, it is disproportionately large in relation to his horse, and the horse looks a little poor and a little "heavy -footed".

But the faces of the audience in the background, and above all the fact that the nine-year-old created a spatial background without any problems, suggests that an incredible talent sets off here (to look at: pablo-ruiz-picasso.net/work-261.php ).

A year later, the Ruiz-Picasso family moved to the opposite end of Spain, in the far northwest to La Coruña in Galicia, his father had accepted a job as an art teacher at the "Instituto da Guarda" . The Instituto da Guarda was actually a school for art and crafts, where only women were taught, but only ten -year -old young artists were accepted at this school for visual arts at the instigation of his father.

At the age of 13, the young artist was already confident enough that he signed his works, was still entirely geared towards the father "P. Ruiz" (with the paternal surname) Picasso's first signature.

Who was Picasso? | Galileo (video)

Picasso's emancipation to the self -determined artist

In January 1895, Picasso's family was shaken by a severe stroke of fate, and his sister Conceptión died of the infectious disease diphteria at the age of only 7. In response to this (and as is suspected, also in response to the talent of his son, which was clearly open to him), his father gave up painting and let himself be moved to the opposite end of Spain, to the Escola de la Llotja (Escola d'Arts i Oficis de Barcelona, ​​artistic school Barcelona) entirely in the northeast.

Picasso can (certainly out of line) to take the entrance exam at this art academy at the age of 14, which he passed with a flying color, which put his surroundings in speechless astonishment.

He was allowed to skip the first two classes and was immediately confronted with the fabric for advanced: the perfectly imitated imitation of the pictures of the "old master", in this case of the works of the Spanish painters of the 17th century.

Picasso was able to paint these works perfectly, in some of the images created around 1895, there were clear notes to the championship of Francisco de Zubarán and the early Diego Velázquez , both legendary Spanish picture artists of the 17th century.

In 1896 his painting "The First Communion" in Barcelona was exhibited and admiringly discussed in the press, Picasso's portrait Philippe IV (after Velázquez, ended in 1897), his first great composition "Science and Charity" (1897), a variation of the then popular history painting, cleared prices in art exhibitions in Madrid and Málaga.

The "flair of the childhood" brought the cubist with 15 his first own studio (furnished by the father, near the parents' apartment), but the early fame was just as interested in him as the further copy of the realistic old masters, at 16 he had enough of all and went to the royal academy of San Fernando, the most respected art school in the country at the time.

At that time, the cubist was already on the trail of his own style, the painting of the father (academic realism) was dismissed with the words: "My father painted pictures for dining room; vineyards or pigeons, pigeons and rabbits" (Jaime Sabartés: Picasso Talks and Memories, The Arche, Hamburg, 1992, p. 13.).

He was also supposed to leave the Royal Art Academy again, the teaching methods displaced him, the museums and the artist's bars of the capital were more interesting.

After a forced break due to illness, Picasso went back to Barcelona in 1898, here he met the avant -garde artists of Spain, here in the café, cabaret and artist meeting "Els Quatre Gats" (the four cats, Catalan) Picasso's first solo exhibition was shown in February 1900 (rather critically discussed and no huge sales success).

However, he continued to train his style, until 1907 through many trips, to Paris for the world exhibition and between Paris, Madrid and Barcelona.

He met artists and art dealers and gallery owners and started his "blue period" . The specialist and business people of the art business recognized the talent of the young artist, in 1901 Pablo Picasso's first Parisian exhibition took place, the pictures of the blue period also arrived better among the critics than his early pictures.

The big sales success was still out of the end, in the winter of 1902 he painted lamp oil and heated with drawings because money for oil paint (binder) and coals was missing. Until he was "discovered" in 1905, in Paris and by the American art collector Leo Stein , brother of the legendary writer and art collector Gertrude Stein, who soon showed interest in his work.

With this, Picasso was open to the “Salon” of the Steins - on fixed days on which the important Parisian artists met, and of course gallery owners also liked to come by. The Paris gallery owner bought the Spanish Künstergenie's works for 2000 Franc, from which you could live for a while at the time.

From the blue period (started with the death of a friend) the pink period , in which blue melancholy disappears, Harlekins, jugglers, rope dancers appear. Perhaps the propagation of the "pink glasses", which is not to be assigned precisely, is actually going back to Picasso? However, his comedians come from the rather tragic commedia dell'arte, and these were quite sad fun makers.

The consistent search for your own style bears fruit

From the winter of 1906 he prepared his first very big hit in around 800 studies - the painting "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" . The picture is almost six square meters in size and shows several naked women, the painting style bears significantly cubist traits. This picture initiated Picasso's "Période Nègre" (Black Period) .

The previous supporters didn't understand much of the "immoral picture", only the young Franco-German gallery owner Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, who had just opened his first gallery in Paris, was able to do something with the emerging fragrance of Cubism . He became Picasso's most important sponsor and from now on he exhibited his works.

Towards the end of this decisive year, Picasso Georges Braque met, an acquaintance with a huge impact on the further course of art history: Braque and Picasso painted the summer of 1908 separately, but created very similar images for which the term cubism in art criticism soon emerged.

Picasso and Braque (which were almost inseparable until May 1909) and Kahnweiler now worked out the basic features of Cubist painting, in 1911 the Spanish painter Juan Gris came to them , the friends should influence many more artists of the time, such as Fernand Léger and Robert Delaunay, who are with Albert Gleizes, Jean Metzinger, Henri Le Fauconnier and others 1911 merged into the cubist "Groupe de Puteaux" .

In the spring of 1911, this Cubist group exhibited in the Salon des Indépendant , a breakthrough of cubism. In the following public discussion about Cubism, the works of Picassos and Braques in the Paris scene became extremely known.

A pleasant side effect for the gallery cubists Picasso and Braque, who did not want to know anything about the "salon cubists", not even gave them access to their studios?

Doubtful, the two directions of Cubism fought violently, into series of press reports and political committees, and Picasso was good enough anyway to develop his very own cubism.

In parallel to this Parisian art war, Picasso has long conquered the world, other art centers were very interested in the artist: Before the First World War, he was seen several times in Germany, England and the USA and caused enthusiasm in large parts of the art world.

He had made it as an artist in terms of perception. The European art business, with Germany as one of the centers, was blamed by the world wars and the undeniable time in between, but after the Second World War it quickly started with modern art , in all its forms, and it was now in the middle of international art:

First he was seen at the 25th Biennale in Venice in 1950, then on Documenta 1 in Kassel in 1955 and in 1959 on Documenta 2. So it went on in 1960 at the 30th Biennale Venice, 1964 on Documenta 3, 1976 at the 37th Biennale Venice, 1977 at the 38th Biennale Venice.

Picasso never stops developing

The just mentioned were just a few of the most important exhibitions of Picasso , and there were also much more in his lifetime. The artist had already passed away from the latter three, but his work just started to develop its effect. So far, the “couple exhibitions” during his lifetime are opposite around 2,000 exhibitions Post Mortem, in all old and now new centers of contemporary art, all over the world.

13 days in the life of Pablo Picasso (1st part)

A film by Pierre Daix, Pierre Philippe, Pierre-André Boutang in 1999: "In 13 chapters, this remarkable documentary shows turning points in the life and work of Pablo Picasso. New witnesses, archive material and previously unpublished documents bring people and artists to life against the background of his era."

This and all other 12 parts of this documentary series can be found in the YouTube channel playlist by Moriundmori-art documentary

His good training is certainly one of the reasons why Picasso is still fascinated by art lovers. But that alone is not, there is initially the uncanny width of his work, Picasso modeled and created sculptures, produced printed graphics and use graphics, drew posters and book illustrations, designed stage pictures and costumes, made ceramics, decorated plates and plates, wrote poems and plays, and quickly invent something, a new sound mass and photographic light painting for example.

Of course, Picasso did not stop at the cubists, there was the return to classic traditions and a long deal with surrealism , the artistic processing of the wars that shock him led to the most famous anti -war picture in general, and his late work reinterprets the art of the old masters, adds their joke and irony and also tries out everything that is within reach.

You can read more about this incredible diversity of the great artist in the article "Art-O-Gramm: Picasso-famous art and her secret" .

The next component must not be forgotten either, Picasso had a lot of time in his life to create art. He has been lifelong and constantly working since the completion of his first decade, and the Spanish painter just turned 91 once , he lived from October 25, 1881 to April 8, 1973. That is 80 years of artistic activity, something comes together, the article "Art-O-Gramm: Picasso-a long life for art" .

And he never let himself be broken by adverse living conditions in his creative power, although in particular he often thwarted the contemporary events in the thread of reading in the "Art-O-Gramm: Picasso-an artist and three wars" .

Portrait of the Spanish painting genius by Frédéric Rossif (1981)

Everything understandable, but yet a question remains open: Why, for heaven's sake, was the art of Picasso consistently so good?

The article gives you an idea of ​​why this could be the case: "Art-O-Gramm: Picasso-famous art and her secret" and certainly also the article "Art-O-Gramm: Picasso-The Artist, Life and Love" . There is still a look at his huge aftermath, in the articles: "Art-O-Gramm:" Picasso-a guarantee for top ranking " and " Art-O-Gramm: Picasso today " .