Pablo Picasso: A Biography
Pablo Picasso's full name is Pablo Diego Jose Franciscio de Paula Juan Nepomuceno de los Remedios de Cipriano de la Santisima Trinidad Clito Ruiz y Picasso. He was a Spanish sculptor and painter, who lived from 1881 to 1973, and he's regarded as one of the most influential and unique artists of the past century. Along with a few other painters, Picasso is responsible for the rise of the cubism movement.
As a younger man, Picasso studied in Madrid, though he did not follow through with his schooling. After he dropped out of school, he went to Paris, where he spent the majority of his life. There, he gathered a circle of friends that included writers and artists alike. He married on two occasions, but he was known to have a multitude of mistresses. The paintings he did right after he moved to Paris, from 1901 to 1904, are regarded as part of Picasso's "Blue Period", and they are believed to be a representation of the artist's depression during that time. The paintings Picasso did from 1905-1907 are from his "Rose Period", as he emerged from depression, and from 1907-1909, most of the artist's work was African-inspired.
During the second half of 1909, Picasso began his Cubism phase, which is regarded as his most original. Along with cubist Georges Braque, his painting style featured cubes and other geometric shapes; later works included fragments of paper in a vague collage form. One of Picasso's most well-known works from this time period is Guernica, named for the city in Spain that was heavily bombed during the Spanish Civil War. It is one of the artist's best works, and it is viewed as Picasso's protest against the brutality of war.
In the latter years of his artistic career, Picasso began to reinterpret the works of earlier masters such as Manet and Goya, and he also donated a fifty-foot-high abstract sculpture to the City of Chicago; that sculpture became one of the city's most famous landmarks. The fame Picasso earned during his career endures even today. Many of Picasso's pieces are among the most expensive and sought-after in the world. Also, lots of young art students (in the hope to make a living of their art passion), are still influenced by the works of Pablo Picasso.