Artists Series: Pablo Picasso (More on the Genius of the XXth Century)

From Málaga to A Coruña and from there to Barcelona… From the prestigious Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando (Madrid), to Els Quatre Gats and from Barcelona to Paris… From a start at the «bateau lavoir» in Montmartre (1900) to the end at Mougins in 1973…

In a «nutshell» this was Pablo Picasso’s life. The child prodigy who grew up to be the «genius» of the 20th Century, the inventor of the collage, cubism and who opened the door to many of the art vanguards of the 20th Century was a card-carrying communist (but I won’t hold that against him), a womaniser, a…supposed…abuser and an infatigable artist who towards the end of his life decided to cannibalise most of art history…

Welcome to this post about my main and most important reference (as an artist), Pablo Ruiz Picasso. He was born in 1881 in Málaga, a small, provincial city in Andalucía, Spain. He died in a castle in southern France 91 years later. He lived life with abundance. He painted voraciously. His passion for life extended to many things including bullfighting, wine, women and clowning around. He must have had quite a unique sense of humour.

They say he was a child prodigy, but I don’t really think so. It’s hard to judge him against other children as we’ve no samples to view. But I can say that his father…who was an artist and an art professor…trained him well and taught him all he knew. So the young Pablo had a huge advantage over other children who might have also aspired to be the «genius» of art that Pablo ultimately became.

Here are some of his early works…

Although the last two show signs of knowledge, ability and technique, the first one doesn’t strike me as being the work of a child prodigy. Actually none of them do. With the training Pablo received, the coaching and the supervision of his father, it is no surprising he painted so well as a youth.

Part two coming very soon!

CHEERS…