25.10.1881 – 04.08.1973

Pablo Picasso can rightfully be called the greatest artist of the XX century. The significance of his work for world art can be compared, probably, with the contribution of the masters of the Renaissance. An ingenious experimenter, he was always in search and development, expressing in his works the tragedy and beauty of the surrounding world.

Pablo Picasso was born October 25, 1881 in Malaga in the family of a teacher of drawing. From an early age, Pablo’s extraordinary talent emerged, at the age of 14 he became the youngest student of the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona. Between 1900 and 1902, Picasso made three trips to Paris and finally settled there in 1904. Paris in the early XX century was truly the cultural capital of the world, which, of course, attracted the young artist. This period in the creative biography of Picasso is called “blue” in the basic color of his works and their minor content, but by 1905 the color spectrum begins to warm up, the so-called “pink” period begins. But after a few years Picasso is fond of experiments with form, along with Georges Braque he develops the basic principles of a completely new art direction – cubism. The most famous work of this period is the picture of 1907 “Avignon girls”.

The meeting with Olga Khokhlova again returned Picasso to a realistic view of the world, but when their relationship was marred by constant scandals, the artist’s handwriting also changed. In this period he creates a gloomy surreal world. However, not all works performed in a surrealistic manner look frightening, in 1932, Picasso falls in love with the young Marie-Teres Walter and creates many of her sculptural and picturesque portraits.

In 1937 the German aviation destroyed the city of Guernica. This monstrous crime deeply touched the artist. He writes a huge canvas, exhibited in the pavilion of Spain at the World Exhibition in Paris. The painting “Guernica” in a surrealistic manner depicts the horrors of the war – a weeping woman with a dead child in her arms, a fallen warrior, wounded and screaming with horror people.

In the postwar years, Picasso draws closer to Francoise Gilot and moves to the south of France. During this period, he is fond of ceramics, working on a series of paintings from 27 paintings for the castle of the princely family Grimaldi in Antibes.

In 1953 Francoise Gilot and Picasso disagree, the artist is seriously experiencing this gap, but the next year he meets Jacqueline Rock, who became his last love and muse.

Pablo Picasso died on April 8, 1973 at the age of 92 years.