Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain in 1881. He was not a good student in school and he had trouble learning to read and write. Pablo always loved art. He had his first art exhibit when he was thirteen.

At the age of eighteen, Pablo moved to Paris. He was very poor and often worked on his paintings by the light of a single candle. The work that Pablo did while he lived in Paris from 1901-1904 is known as his “blue period”. This is because everything he painted came out sad and blue.

In 1904, he entered his “pink period” and the subjects of his art as well as the colors of his paintings appeared happier. It was during this time that Pablo married his first wife. He was married twice and had four children during his lifetime.

Pablo helped create a new style of art called Cubism beginning in 1908. The paintings he created appeared to be made up of “little cubes”. One of his most famous painting using this technique is called the “Three Musicians” painted in 1921. His favorite subjects to paint were musical instruments, still-life objects and his friends.

During the 1930’s, Picasso added surrealism to his paintings. His paintings seem to have double images and dream-like qualities. He also worked on sculptures during this time.

Pablo Picasso is considered to be one the greatest artists of the 20th century. He created over 20,000 works during his lifetime and died at the age of ninety-one on April 8, 1973.

Art Exercises to Try at Home:

1. Create a collage person by using scraps of fabric and paper cutouts. Arrange the shapes into a pleasing vertical arrangement and glue them to your paper. Add a face, arms and legs to create a person. The collage person should be distorted like the people in Picasso’s paintings. (Shapes can overlap and fabric or interesting materials such as yarn or buttons may be added.)

2. Try painting an entire picture in a blue palette. Think of something that makes you sad and try to mimic Picasso’s “blue period”. Blue is known as a cool color because of the feeling it evokes. Other cool colors are green and purple.

3. Try to remember an unusual dream that you have had. Draw a picture of what you can remember. It is o.k. if it doesn’t seem to make any sense.

4. Picasso liked to make pictures of faces that were distorted. Draw three large oval shapes. Create three faces using cut out shapes of different noses, ears, mouths, etc. Put the faces together in unusual ways. The eye can be below the mouth or the nose can go where the ear normally would. What do you think of your artwork? Would you ever create art like this on your own? Why or why not?

5. Picasso went to the circus three or four times a week. This was during his “Rose Period.” Draw a picture of a circus scene. Use mainly pink and blue colors in your picture.