Pablo Ruiz Picasso

Pablo Ruiz Picasso full name is actually Pablo Diego Jose Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santisima Trinidad Clito Ruiz y Picasso. He was born on October 25th, 1881in Malaga in Spain. He was the first son of Maria Picasso y Lopez and Jose Ruiz y Blasco. His father was a painter as well as a professor of art at the School of Crafts and the curator of a museum in Spain. Picasso learned much about art from his father and being in the museum. Picasso went on to attend the Academy of Arts in Madrid, however, he dropped out within a year of attending.

Picasso's real work as an artist began in 1894 with a painting called "The First Communion" which showed his sister Lola. In 1897 he painted the "Portrait of Aunt Pepa". In the same year, his realistic style of painting became influenced by Symbolism and came across in a series of landscapes where he used violet and green tones in the colors. Picasso made his first trip in 1900 to Paris. He developed a great love for the city. He moved in with his friend Max Jacob who was a poet and a journalist. They both had very different schedules. While Max would work in the day, Picasso would sleep. Picasso would sleep during the day and work all night. Time were extremely rough for Picasso. He even had to burn some of his paintings to keep himself warm. In 1901 things started looking up for Picasso. He started a magazine called "Arte Joven" in Madrid with his friend Soler. Picasso solely illustrated the first edition. This is when he became known as only Picasso, because he would sign his pairings as Picasso and not Pablo Ruiz y Picasso. Picasso almost always had an active love life. He had several mistresses and a wife. All the paintings by Pablo Picasso are usually classified into various periods based on the moods and styles of the paintings. His paintings almost always reflected his personal feelings and love life.

From the years 1899 to 1900 was a period when Picasso was creating paintings in a Modernist style which emerged due to his influence and exposure to the works of Rosetti and Edward Munch. The years 1901 to 1907 is called Picasso's Blue Period because several of his works during those years were in shades of blue and green. He chose prostitutes and beggars as his subjects for these paintings. Some of his most famous paintings of his Blue Period were "Celestina", "La Vie", and "The Birdman's Meal". Blindness and poverty were a big theme of his paintings this time as well. It was during this Blue Period that Picasso started using the image of a harlequin, in checkered clothing, as personal concepts in his paintings. The years 1905 to 1907 is called Picasso's Rose Period where his paintings became happy and he used much pink and orange colors. The years 1907 to 1909 is called his African Influenced Period where his drawings were inspired by African artifacts. A famous painting of his of his from this period is his painting titled "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon". 1909 to 1912 is called Picasso's Analytic Cubism Period. It was characterized by the use of monochrome brown colors. During this time, he took apart objects and analyzed them within the medium of his paintings. From the years 1912 to 1919 is called Picasso's Synthetic Cubism Period where he began to use collage in his art. He would add pieces of wallpaper or newspaper pages and paste them onto his works. Throughout the 1930's Picasso returned to a more neoclassical style of painting. Another major modification was the use of the Monotaur as his primary concept, rather than the harlequin in his paintings. During this time he produced "Guernica" a paintings that depicted the brutalities and hopelessness caused by war. In the 1950's Picasso changed his style yet again by reinterpreting