Pablo Picasso
Spanish, active in France, 1881–1973
Italian, born in Greece, 1888–1978
BiographyPablo Picasso moved to Paris from Barcelona in 1904, where he would remain until 1945. Here he began to meet artists and writers such as Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, and Kees Van Dongen, and dealers such as Ambroise Vollard and Daniel Henry Kahnweiler. The saltimbanques, jesters, and harlequins of his Blue Period (1902-4) continued to be the dominant subjects of his Rose Period (1904-5), although the work of this period is distinctive for its lighter palette and less melancholic mood. During this period he also produced several sculptures and prints. The most experimental period of his early career, around 1906-7, culminated in Les Demoiselles d'Avignon of 1907. By the end of 1908, Picasso moved towards early (analytical) Cubism, working in partnership with Georges Braque to formulate an artistic paradigm that would have an extensive impact on the art of the first half of the twentieth century. Picasso continued to work in a synthetic Cubist idiom into the early 1920s. He joined the Spanish Republican cause, painting the monumental Guernica (Madrid, Centro de la Reina Sofía) in 1937 in protest against the bombing of a Basque town by pro-Franco German bombers. Leaving Paris in 1946 he lived in Antibes and Vauvenargues, continuing to create numerous works in various media, including graphics and ceramics. Never aligning himself with any movement after Cubism, he remained extraordinarily productive until the end of his life, and was one of the most versatile and influential artists of the twentieth century.