Chapter 1
The Boy Wonder
On
October 25, 1881, in Malaga in southern Spain, an art teacher and his wife had
a baby boy. They named him after many saint and relatives: Pablo Diego Jose
Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Maria de los RemediosCipriano de la
Santisima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso. Years later that baby became known as the
great artist, Pablo Picasso.
Pablo could draw before he could talk. His mother said his first word were “Piz! Piz!” That’s baby talk in Spanish for lapis, which means “pencil.” When he was really little, he liked to draws spirals or anything in the sand. If he drew a horse, he could start from any pointand make a very good picture in one line. He could do the same with paper and scissors. Pablo’s first known painting was of a bullfight. He was only about eight years old when he did it.
Pablo had two younger sisters, Lola and Conchita. Sadly,
when Pablo was still young, seven-years-old Conchita died of diphtheria. The
whole family was crushed. For the rest of his life, Pablo had a fear of died.
When Pablo was thirteen, he has his first art show. By
then, his father saw that Pablo painting better than he did. So he gave his son
all his brushes and paints and never painted again.
Pablo and his family moved to Barcelona. Pablo was
accepted to the local art school were his father taught drawing. Even though he
was only fourteen, Pablo skipped the basic courses and went right to the
advanced ones.
Pablo’s career really began when he was sixteen. He did a
painting called Science and Charity. His
sister Lola and his father were his models. The painting was really realistic
in style. It won a prize at an exhibit in Madrid. Pablo beat some of the best
artists in Spain.
Pablo’s family sent him to Madrid to study art at the
Royal Academy of San Fernando, but Pablo skipped class a lot. He ended up
spending a lot time goofing off cafes. He also loved going to the famous Prado
Art Museum, where he saw the work of the Spanish masters El Greco and Francisco
Goya.
In winter, Pablo came down with scarlet fever. He left
school and went to the little village of Horta de San Juan. He had a lot of
time to think about his future. Pablo decided not to go back to school. His
family was not going to like that, but Pablo was restless and ready to be on
his own.
Chapter 3
Life in Paris
Moving
back to Paris-this time for good-was one cause. Lively Paris worked its magic
on Pablo. He became happier. He started doing colorful paintings of jugglers
and acrobats in a traveling circus. The other reason that his Blue Period ended
was Pablo had a new girlfriend. She was a beautiful artist named Fernande
Oliver. His happiness showed in his painting. This time in Pablo’s life is
something called the Rose Period, but his painting had many colors. Not just
pinks.
Pablo and Fernande lived in a big, run-down apartment
building that was full of artists and poets. Their room was damp and a mess
with lots of projects going on. Pablo didn’t like to throw out anything. He
said, “Why should you want me to throw away what has done me the favor of
coming into my hands?”
They had a big, yellow dog named Frika. Pablo liked to
worked at night by oil lamp. He often worked until five or six in the morning.
In winter, the room was sometimes so cold that leftover cups of tea froze
overnight.
Around this time, Pablo was meeting lots of interesting
people in Paris. They thought he was interesting too. He was intense and
complicated. He could be very charming and his curiosity, energy, intellect,
and originality caught people’s attention.
He met a rich American women named Gertrude Stein and her
brother Leo. Gertrude was a poet. She had written the famous line, “Rose is a
rose is a rose.” She was one of the first people to really appreciate Pablo’s
paintings, and she bought some of them.
Pablo met the painter Henri Matisse at the Stein’s house
in Paris on Saturday night. Pablo thought Matisse was the greatest painter of
time. Even thought they were competitors, they became lifelong friends.
After working on a portrait of Gertrude Stein, Pablo realize
that he didn’t have to paint exactly what he saw. He could paint what he
imagined. It was a turning point in the history of modern arts.
Chapter 5
Something New
By
1909, Pablo was becoming well-known. He and Fernande moved into a fancier
house. They spent summer with Barbeque in an old villa in the mountains. Then
he and Fernande broke up.
Soon Pablo had a new girlfriend, Eva Gouel. Pablo painted
a picture of Eva, called Ma Jollie, which
means “My Pretty Girl.” Pablo was in love again.
Once again Picassso and Braque were on something new.
They started using stencils and printed words in their paintings. They also
began pasting things on to their pictures. If they wanted a newspaper to be
shown, they stuck on a piece of newspaper. That was how collage began. Collage
means “to stick.” One of Pablo’s first collage was called Still Life with Chair Caning. Braque and Pablo went on, in their
playful way, sticking anything even trash onto their painting.
In 1914, a local war between Austria-Hungary and Serbia
grew into what became known as the Great War—Word War I. The Archduke of
Austria was killed by a Serb. Germany backed Austria-Hungary and Russia backed
Serbia. Germany declared war on Russia, and then on France. Soon countries all
over the world were involved, including the United States.
In 1914, Braque was drafted into the French army. Pablo
not a French citizen. He didn’t have to join the army. He stayed in Paris
while many of his friends went off to fight.
France was fighting against Germany and the French
thought anybody German was an enemy. Because Pablo’s friend, the gallery owner
Kahnweiler, was German, he was forced to leave France. The gallery was closed
by the French authorities and all of Pablo’s work there was confiscated.
In 1915, Pablo’s dear Eva died of tuberculosis. Pablo was
brokenhearted. He had worked on one painting while Eva was sick, Herlequin, and finished it after she
died. It shows a a clown like artist in
front of an easel holding an unfinished painting. The background is black. It
was a black time in Europe and in Pablo’s personal life as well.
Chapter 7
War and Piece
Some artists work on one idea and in one style. But
Picasso changed all the time. Picassso’s painting reflected what was going on
in his personal life as well as was happening in the outside world.
In 1936 the Spanish Civil War broke out. Picasso was
living in Paris, yet he was deeply affected by the war in Spain because he was
a Spaniard, after all.
In Spain, a Republican government had been elected. But
it was overthrown by General Francisco Franco and his forced. Franco was a
dictator and ruled Spain until his death in 1975. Because of Franco, Picasso
never returned to his native country.
In April, 1937, the town of Guernica in northeast Spain
was bombed by the Germans who were helping Franco and his men. Guernica was not
far from Picasso hometown. The bomb fell on market day. More than sixteen
hundred people were killed. Almost nine hundred more were injured. There was no
military reason for the attack.
Picasso was outraged by the murder of all these innocent
people, he painted a huge twelve-foot-high-by-twenty-six-foot-long painting
called Guernica. He finished it in
just three weeks.
His new girlfriend, Dora, took many photographs of him
working on it.
Then, in 1939, World War II started after the German army
invaded Poland. Fearing bombings, museum in Paris closed down. Much of the art
was moved and hidden in the countryside. Many artists fled the city. Picasso
with his family moved to Royan, a small town in France on the Atlantic coast.
In 1940, the Germans occupied Paris. So, Picasso decided
to move back to his studio there. Perhaps, Picasso hoped his presence would be
a proud symbol to the French of defiance and freedom.
It was hard to get food. Art supplies were also scarce.
Even so, Picasso managed to paint every day. He also wrote a play. the Nazis
did not approve of any of his work. But that didn’t stop Picasso!
Picasso left Dora. He met a young artist, Francoise
Gilot, and began a ten-year-long romance with her.
In 1944, the Nazis were finally driven out Paris. Picasso
kept on Painting. He sang loudly while he worked to drown out the sounds of the
gunfire. As soon as the Germans were gone, Paris had a party. The city was free
again and the war was almost over.
American soldiers poured into Paris. Some said the two
things they most wanted to do were see the Eiffel Tower and meet Picasso.
The seconds World War lasted six years. Picasso had now
lived through three wars. He knew how important it was to work for peace. In
1948, he went to the Peace Congress in Poland. The following year, he made a
poster of a dove for the Peace Congress. Because of Picasso, the dove has
become a symbol for peace all over the world.
