"Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up" - Pablo Picasso
However I prefer more representational art, there is something I like about Picasso. He had many good sayings we can learn from, and I admire the boldness and confidence in the different styles of his artwork.
Born in Málaga on the southern coast of Spain in 1881, Pablo Picasso could supposedly draw before he could talk. By age 13 he was said to have out-mastered his father, an art teacher. As a result, his father allegedly handed over his brushes and palette to Picasso and swore that he would never paint again. Soon after, Picasso sought admission to an art school in Barcelona. Although a month was normally allowed to complete the entrance examination, he finished his in a single day. Much later, he stated that he could draw “like Raphael” when he was young. “But it has taken me my whole life to learn to draw like a child,” he added.
As a teenager, Picasso painted fairly realistic portraits and landscapes. He then went through his so-called blue and rose periods from 1901 to 1906, in which he depicted such things as poverty-stricken children and circus scenes, respectively. “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon,” a distorted portrait of five prostitutes that is considered one of his most revolutionary pieces, came in 1907. It opened the door for Cubism, an abstract style that reduces subjects to geometric forms. By 1912 Picasso had invented collage by attaching oilcloth, newspaper clippings and other materials to the surface of his paintings. This, along with an increased emphasis on color, precipitated a transition from what’s known as Analytic Cubism to Synthetic Cubism. Later in life, he practiced a form of Neoclassicism and recreated paintings from such masters as Diego Velázquez, Édouard Manet and Eugène Delacroix. At various times, he also incorporated Surrealist, Expressionist, Post-Impressionist, and Symbolist elements into his art.
Evolution of Picasso's selfportraits
15 years old (1896)
18 years old (1900)
20 years old (1901)
24 years old (1906)
25 years old (1907)
35 years old (1917)
56 years old (1938)
83 years old (1965)
85 years old (1966)
89 years old (1971)
90 years old (June 28, 1972)
90 years old (June 30, 1972)
90 years old (July 2, 1972)
90 years old (July 3, 1972)
Enjoy this documentary about Picasso:
