Pablo Picasso - Buy or sell works
25 October 1881, Málaga (Spain) - 8 April 1973, Mougins (France)
Pablo Picasso is one of the most significant artists of the 20th century. His complete oeuvre comprises almost 50,000 paintings, illustrations and prints, but also collages, sculpture and ceramics. The Spanish painter, graphic artist and sculptor was a co-founder of Cubism and was famous for his avant-garde style.
Picasso was born in Málaga on 25 October 1881 as the first son of the art teacher José Ruiz Blasco and his wife María Picasso López.
Picasso attended the Art Academy in Barcelona at the age of just 14, and from 1899 worked as an illustrator for newspapers. Following an only moderately successful individual exhibition in 1990, he travelled to Paris, where he encountered works by famous Impressionists like Paul Cezanne and Edgar Degas. After numerous changes, Picasso created his own signature (Picasso) in 1901 that lent full expression to his self-confidence as an artist. His creative oeuvre from 1901-1905 is generally summarised by the term the Blue Period, which was followed by the Pink Period. It was around this time that he met Fernande Olivier, who became his first life partner and muse.
His painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon of summer 1907 marked a surprising turnaround, introducing a new section of his oeuvre entitled the Black Period. Although highly controversial early on, this painting is today considered one of the artist’s principal works. In it, Picasso nullifies the classic understanding of a picture’s structure. Before embarking on this period, Picasso explored a variety of art genres and role models by other artists. He found his intellectual companion in Georges Braque, whose style of painting was remarkably similar to his own. Picasso joined with Braque to establish the genre of Cubism. Lasting from 1908-1916, this phase had a defining influence on Picasso’s style of painting. He dissolved the geometric forms of physical objects, for instance in his work Woman with Guitar. In addition, he collaborated with Braque from 1912 onwards to develop papier collé, an early form of collage.
He married the Russian ballet dancer Olga Khokhlova in 1908, and their son Paolo was born in 1921.
Picasso embraced Surrealism after abandoning Cubism in 1924. The art journal La Révolution Surréaliste printed his work The Three Dancers the following year.
Picasso had a fascination with bullfighting from his youth, an interest that his art reflected for the first time in 1928. The artist faced some private turmoil in the following years. His wife Olga submitted divorce papers while his lover was expecting their joint child. Known among other things for his numerous extramarital affairs, Picasso had three other children with the photographer Dora Maar and two more with the painter Francoise Gilot.
In 1937, Picasso created a large-format anti-war painting Guernica for the Spanish Pavilion at the 1937 International Paris Exposition. This huge artwork was his personal response to the destruction of the city by the Germans during the Spanish Civil War. He joined the Communist Party of France in 1944.
Besides painting, Picasso adopted two other art forms from the mid-1940s, namely lithography and ceramics. His lithograph The Dove was selected as the motif for the 1949 Peace Congress in Paris, and since then has been considered the quintessential symbol of peace. Picasso started work on the political murals War and Peace in 1952, also joining with Henri Matisse to sign an appeal for peace. He married the artist Jaclyn Roque in 1961, who became his most important model.
Picasso died in Mougins on 8 April 1973.
Dorotheum sold a 1920 gouache titled Corbeille et Fruits was for €264,000 on 29 May 2007.