Research and Describe the Early Life of Pablo Picasso (Essay Sample)

PABLO PICASSO
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Pablo Picasso
Early Life
Pablo Picasso was born in 1881 in the Spanish town of Malaga located in the Spanish region of Andalucia. I was born the first child of Don José Ruiz y Blasco and María Picasso y López. According to Spanish naming custom and law, my father issued me with various names honoring relatives and saints. These ranged from Diego, Jose, and Jose, to complex ones like Juan Nepomuceno. My father Ruiz was a painter and professor of arts at the School of Arts. In addition, he also served as the curator of the local museum making him intensely passionate about fine arts. My father’s ancestors were minor aristocrats and the hard work my parents put into raising our family meant we were a middle-class family during those turbulent times. The deep artistic roots my father exhibited would influence me early in my life as early developments in my life proved.I do not know if it was the environment in which I was born, or a genetic factor, but I showed a passion and skill for drawing at an early age. By the age of thirteen, I was painting in oil (Green, n.d). My mother says I asked for a pencil first when I started speaking as a young boy (Lowery & Potter, 1999). My father tutored me on the formal skills related to oil painting and figure drawing. His teaching philosophy included a firm belief in the need for a student to emulate the master’s work while acquiring the necessary skills to be an independent professional. Unfortunately, these rigorous sessions affected the young boy’s academic work as he spent a lot of time drawing because of his schoolwork. However, a failing educational development was the least of his concern as the hardship of Spain’s economic and social circumstances soon came knocking.My family had to move to A Coruna on 1891 after my father obtained a teaching and instruction position at the School of Fine Arts. He had noted that I was surpassing his skill level and even gave up painting on account of the apocryphal mannerisms of the old instructors who ceased the practice on account of being surpassed by their students. However, the move came at an enormous cost in the way of Conchita’s demise due to diphtheria in 1895. These events prompted another move by the family, this time to Barcelona. My father acquired another instructor’s position at the city’s School of Fine Arts as I started my journey in the art world. For me, Barcelona was the best home since I found comfort while mourning the death of Conchita. Interestingly, my father convinced the school to allow me to take an admission exam. I was only thirteen years old when I gained entry after successfully completing an exam that took regular students a month to complete in a week.
The abilities I exhibited convinced my father and my uncle to send me to the country’s best art school in Madrid. The Royal Academy of San Fernando offered art classes in a manner that did not appeal to me. The classes were too formal, something that contradicted with my young age and philosophy in artwork. Therefore, I absconded classes and decided to derive tutelage, as well as motivation from other sources. The housed paintings of Prado were of particular interest to me as a young artists trying to establish myself and improve my skill set. My favorite works of art were by Francisco Goya and Francisco Zurbaran. El Greco’s depictions through a dazzling use of color and elongated limbs also appealed to me as I continued to transverse city in search of motivation and inspiration.
The year 1897 marked an important milestone in my art career because I developed modernist sentiments. Exposure to the inspirational works of legendary artists such as Edvard Munch, Steinlen, Rossetti, as well as El Greco’s instruction left me with a desire to pursue a personal journey of modernism. The desire was as depicted by the decision to travel to Paris three years later. Considered by many artists the capital of art in Europe during the turn of the century, the city would influence Pablo in a very significant manner. The first years of life in Paris were very hard. He lived with his first Parisian friend, the poet Max Jacob. I would usually have to burn some of my lesser works just to keep the little room warm and protect the both of us from the treacherous Parisian winter. Max Jacob was a different friend from my Madrid anarchist friend Francisco de Asís Soler with whom we had started a magazine titled Arte Joven (Young Art). The magazine touched on the state of the poor social and economic situation using grim cartoons.The period between 1901 and 1904 was a tumultuous period for Pablo Picasso. My work depicted the somber mood using shades of blue and blue-green. The majority of this work entailed emaciated mothers, beggars, and prostitutes. The period became Pablo’s blue period because he experienced a doleful mood and reflected the same in his work. The gloom rose a notch when my friend Carlos Casagemas committed suicide. My mood worsened, a state I expertly captured in ‘The Frugal Past’, an etching depicting a blind man and a sighted woman, both gaunt and needy. The painting seemed to mirror my feeling since the death of my friend.The following year after the death of my friend improved in terms of the quality of life. So good were these times that I found love. Fernande Olivier was a bohemian artist who influenced the subsequent work of Pablo Picasso from the gloomy blue depictions of blind men, prostitutes, and gaunt mothers to circus characters in dazzling pink and orange colors. During this period, the Harlequin became the primary symbol of Pablo’s work (Caws, 2005). In 1905, Pablo met Gertrude Stein, Henri Matisse and other famed art collectors who were interested in spreading the fame he was generating in the city by exhibiting his works in various museums and art galleries. Later, in 1907 he joined the art gallery of Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler. This figure would become one of my champions together with Georges Braque, with whom they had developed cubism. The Rise To Fame And His Eventual Settling DownCubism was a period characterized by the use of collage-like elements in the artwork of the day. Between 1909 and 1909, Georges Braque developed this form of artistic expression, and it struck a chord with me almost immediately. In addition to some African influences that led to the production of one of the artist’s most famous paintings, the Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Pablo was quickly gaining recognition in the European art world. Unfortunately, World War 1 came knocking before he could hit the peak of his career. In addition, he had parted ways with his first mistress Olivier for Marcelle Humbert. Although he called her Eva Gouel, he treated her well. However, his lover departed in 1915 at a relatively young age of 30. During the war, Pablo continued painting and later met another woman with whom he started a relationship. Gaby Lespinasse would be Pablo’s mistress during the First World War until he met a ballerina named Olga Khokholva. He married her just before the war ended in 1918.Igor Khokholva was a famous ballerina accustomed to life in the limelight and the social circles. While the new life appealed to Pablo Picasso for the first few years, his bohemian roots kicked in and caused frequent fights with his wife over their different socializing mannerisms. He was the highly socialized life Olga was offering. During this period, he met another mistress named Marie-Therese Walter, who was a 17-year-old girl. The subsequent romantic relationship never materialized into a marriage once more demonstrating Pablo’s womanizing tendencies (Walker, 2010). Throughout his life, Pablo had fathered four children with three women having married twice.During and after The Second World War, Pablo Picasso diversified his sense of art and included other forms of art in his career. He wrote more than 300 poems including The Four Little Girls and Desire Caught by the Tail. Interestingly, he also started engaging in ceramics in the 1950’s and 1960’s (Apollinaire, Eimert, & Podoksik, 2010). In addition, he also continued to cast in bronze even after the Germans outlawed it to preserve the precious metals for use in military purposes. Over the course of more than three decades, Pablo sculpted more than 250 artworks as part of his diversification projects. One of his famous bronze pieces from 1967 is on display in the US city of Chicago. This bronze sculpture, named the Chicago Picasso, stands over 50 feet tall and epitomizes his outstanding career in fine art.
An Example of Pablo Picasso’s Famous ArtworksOne of Pablo Picasso’s famous artworks was the 1907 oil painting ...