Art 133: Pablo Picasso

Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (1881 - 1973) is arguably one of the best artists of the 20th century. You may know him better as just Pablo Picasso. (In case you're curious, in Spain, it is the law to take the full names of your ancestors in addition to your own, hence the incredibly long name.)

Picasso was no stranger to the arts, even at a young age. This was mainly because his father was a painter and became a professor at the School of Fine Arts in A Coruña when Pablo was 10. He came from a middle class family and was influenced by various artists, including Edvard Munch and El Greco.

Before I bought the book Pablo Picasso: A Retrospective for 40 cents at Goodwill, I knew little about the man. The book is a whopping 463 pages long. In other words, it's huge. And hefty. Most of these pages are dedicated solely to reproductions of his various paintings, sketches, drawings, chronically his life as an artist.

Picasso boldly went where none had gone before. His work, according to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), "stylistically and chronologically encompasses more of twentieth-century art than that of any other artist." It's true, this man lived to see WWI, the Spanish Civil War, and WWII, all major events that would be translated to canvas. Picasso is also a co-founder of the Cubist movement along with Georges Braque.

His most famous works consist of:

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
1907, Oil on canvas
243.9 cm × 233.7 cm (96 in × 92 in)

Weeping Woman (Dora)
1937, Oil on canvas
60 х 49 cm (23 ⅝ х 19 ¼ inches)

Guernica
1937, Oil on canvas
349 cm × 776 cm (137.4 in × 305.5 in)

"Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth." -- Pablo Picasso