Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga in 1881. As a child he was taught painting and drawing by his father, before attending the academies in Barcelona and Madrid. He first visited Paris in 1900, and moved there in 1904. The dreary pictures from his so-called Blue Period were followed by the lyrical ones of his Rose Period. Picasso was acquainted with the writers Apollinaire and Gertrude Stein, as well as such artists as Henri Matisse and André Derain. He avidly studied the paintings of Paul Cézanne. In 1907, with his painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, he initiated Cubism, which he and Georges Braque would develop further. He created increasingly abstract works, including collages. In addition, he worked on stage designs. In 1925 Picasso took part in the first Surrealist exhibition. Beginning in 1928 he turned more and more to sculpture and also began making prints. After a bombing attack by German troops on the Basque town of Guernica in 1937 he produced his famous painting of the same name. Picasso joined the Communist Party in 1944. In Vallauris in 1947 he devoted himself to ceramics. From this time on he lived in various spots in the south of France. He died in Mougins in 1973.