Göteborgs konstmuseum | Pablo Pablo Picasso

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Pablo Picasso
Spanish, 1881 - 1973

Pablo Ruiz Picasso was born on 25 October 1881 in Málaga, Andalusia, and died on 8 April 1973 in Mougins, Provence.

Picasso was taught the basic of art by his father, who was taught drawing. He showed an unusual talent and studied at various art schools in Barcelona, where he lived 1895–1904, and at the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid.

At around 1900, Picasso was impressed by international styles such as symbolism and post-impressionism. The paintings from the Blue Period, 1901–1904, depict poor people using pathos and melancholy. In 1904, Picasso moved to Paris where he became acquainted with artists and authors from the avant-garde, including Guillaume Apollinaire. During his Pink Period, 1904–1906, his colours brightened and the atmosphere became more playful, including in his pictures of circus artists.

In 1906–1907, Picasso, influenced by primitive art and Paul Cézanne’s idiom, began experimenting with breaking down the subject of the painting. These experiments resulted in Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907) where a few of the women’s faces were replaced by African masks at a late stage of the painting. Along with Georges Braque, Picasso developed cubism, which built upon a systematic deconstruction of the object in two dimensions in muted colours. Cubism, which had its most dynamic period between 1907 and 1914, developed out of analytical cubism (facet cubism) via collage cubism to the more superficial synthetic cubism. Apollinaire became the foremost interpreter of the movement. Cubism has had an undeniable influence on modern art.

In 1919–1925, Picasso was influenced by classical art and developed an idiom with monumental figures that then became increasingly transformed under the influence of surrealism. Picasso developed an expressive idiom as a synthesis of his different styles that was manifested in Guernica (1937). The subject of this large canvas is Franco’s attack, supported by German bombers, on this Basque village during the Spanish Civil War. Picasso, a member of the Communist party, adopted an anti-Franco stance. With twisted shapes and monochrome colours like those of a newspaper, Picasso shows the defenceless inhabitants’ fear and desperation. The painting caused a sensation at the World’s Fair in Paris, 1937.

Alongside painting, Picasso worked with sculpture, ceramics and prints. His more significant sculptures include the cubist bronzes (ca. 1909), his collages (1912–1916), constructions wrought iron with Julio González (1931–1934) and his ready-mades and objets trouvés, in which found objects are combined in unexpected ways.

After World War II, Picasso moved from Paris to Antibes, Vallauris and Vauvenargues. Among his numerous love affairs were longer relationships with the ballet dancer Olga Khoklova, Marie-Thérèse Walter, photographer Dora Maar, artist Françoise Gilot and ceramicist Jacqueline Roque.

Works of Art