Pablo Picasso, together with Georges Braque (1882-1963), is credited with inventing Cubism, a modern art movement that simplifies topics to geometric patterns. Among the influences on the couple were Iberian sculpture, African masks, and Post-Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne.1)
When French art critic Louis Vauxcelles (1870-1943) observed that Picasso and Braque's work was full of “bizarre cubiques,” he coined the term “Cubism.”2)
Picasso was a sculptor, ceramicist, stage designer, poet, dramatist, and print writer in addition to a painter.3)
According to legend, a Nazi commander spotted a painting of Guernica and questioned Picasso whether he had painted it. “No, you did”, Picasso said.4)
Picasso was known to carry a handgun loaded with blanks. He'd shoot it at anybody he thought uninteresting or at anyone who offended Cézanne.5)
Picasso was born on October 25, 1881, into a middle-class family in Málaga, Spain. He did, however, spend the most of his adult life in France.6)
Picasso was a kid prodigy who was able to sketch before he could speak.7)
Picasso began as a Symbolist, influenced by painters like Edvard Munch and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.8)
Picasso's name has appeared on a variety of commercial items, including an automobile (Citroen Xsara Picasso), perfume (Cognac Hennessy Picasso), and lighters (ST Dupont Picasso). Picasso's heirs are always arguing about intellectual property issues pertaining to his name.9)
Picasso was accepted to the School of Fine Arts at the age of 13. While most students took their entrance exams over the course of a month, he finished his in just one week.10)
Picasso studied at Madrid's Royal Academy of San Fernando when he was 16 years old. He quickly dropped out because he disliked formal education.11)
Fish, a former Marillion member, acknowledges Picasso in his song “Big Wedge.” He is also the topic of Jonathon Richman and The Modern Lovers' song “Pablo Picasso”.12)
Picasso was buried at a château he purchased in the south of France in 1958. He purchased the estate because it was located on the slopes of Mont Sainte-Victoire, a favorite spot of impressionist artist Paul Cézanne.13)
Picasso began designing the curtain, sets, and costumes for many ballets since 1917. While his sets and costumes were first panned, they are today seen as emblematic of the innovative art of the time.14)
Picasso was born so feeble that the midwife assumed he was dead and placed him on a table. His uncle, who was smoking a large cigar, approached the newborn and blew a smoke ring into his face and was saved thanks to this.15)
Picasso died without a will, therefore his death obligations (estate tax) to the French state were paid with his artworks.16)
“Turn off the gray of your life and light the colors inside you” is his famous quote.17)
“When people say I'm too old to accomplish anything, I attempt to do it right now,” Picasso stated.18)
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Nepomuceno Mara de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santisima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruz y Picasso is Picasso's entire name, which consists of 23 syllables. His name has references to saints as well as family members.19)
Pablo Picasso takes his surname from his mother, Mara Picasso y López. José Ruz Blasco is his father's name.20)
In 1912, Picasso developed collage (from the French, “to glue”) by attaching oilcloth, newspaper clippings, and other material to the surface of a painting.21)
Collage, because to his and Georges Braque's ability, became a distinct component of contemporary art, rejecting the notion that art is a window to nature in favor of an arrangement of symbolic messages.22)
Picasso frequently switched between styles, sometimes even within the same artwork.23)
Picasso's 1907 “Les Demoiselles d'Avignon”, an abstract picture of five prostitutes, is regarded as one of his most groundbreaking works. His use of Primitivism and deconstructed perspective marked a significant departure from conventional European painting. The artwork, originally titled “The Brothel of Avignon,” paved the path for Cubism.24)
Although Picasso's “Les Demoiselles d'Avignon” (1907) is most certainly the most studied work of art in the twentieth century, it was not shown until 1916. Picasso's pals thought the work was too contentious to show.25)
Picasso began writing poems in 1935, at the age of 53. His poetry, like his paintings, defy categorization; they are typically untitled, lack punctuation, and are primarily sexual and scatological. One of his poems has the line “the fragrance of bread crusts marinating in pee”.26)
Picasso, at 62, joined the French Communist Party shortly after Paris was liberated from the Nazis in 1944.27)
Picasso was given the International Stalin Peace Prize twice by the Soviet Union, once in 1950 and again in 1961 (then renamed the International Lenin Peace Prize). 28)
The Paris World Peace Conference selected Picasso's dove as the official symbol of many peace organisations in 1949.29)
Picasso left behind a broken family of four children, eight grandkids, two marriages, and several lovers when he died in 1973.30)