Cubism
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Pablo Picasso, born Oct 25 in 1881 in Malaga, Spain. Died 1973.
Is one of the most influential painters of the 20th century. His talent was most likely inherited from his father, Don Jose Ruiz Blasco, who painted and taught drawing for a living. After receiving a teaching position at the Academy of Fine Arts in Barcelona, Don Jose was able to get the school officials to allow the young Picasso of fourteen years to take the entrance exams of the school. Picasso did so and passed with flying colors gaining a position in the senior section of the academy, and amazing the lecturers with his skill and talent. Legend has it that he completed in one day a subject for the exam for which a month was allocated. By the age of fifteen, Picasso had mastered portrait and genre painting.. His work from
1901 to 1904 is known as his Blue Period and involved emotional subject
matter painted in the Spanish tradition. In 1904 Picasso took a studio in
Bateau Lavoir and became the major force in an artistic circle which
included Max Jacob, Guillaume Apollinaire, Andre Salmon and Marie Laurencin.

Picasso began to gain a following from a number of dealers and collectors
including the Russian Shchukin and Leo and Gertrude Stein. His work from
1905 to around 1908 is far less austere and the blues of his earlier work
give way to pinks and greys. This work which used acrobats, dancers and
harlequins as subject matter later became known as his Pink Period. In 1907
he was taken up by the dealer Daniel H. Kahnweiler.

Pablo Picasso's ingenuity and skill in handling form have been influential to artists working in areas ranging from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art. His determined spirit aided him in shaking off social restrains and overcoming fashion, as he worked with various medium such as paint, collage, and drawing.
The 1907 work, Demoiselles D'Avignon, a semi-abstract piece influenced by
Negro sculpture, showed a new direction in his work. This work which was the
first to show strong signs of cubism was incomprehensible to the artists
around him. It was not publicly shown until 1937 and it is now considered to
be the single most important and influential work of the Twentieth century.
The years from 1907 to 1909, now known as his Negro Period, saw him become
incredibly independent as an artist. During this time he focused on an
analysis and simplification of form and his work of this time was largely
based on his study of Cezanne and Negro sculpture.

From 1910 to 1916 Picasso worked closely with Braque, and later, Gris,
developing Cubism. Paper collage played a large part in this work combining
everyday, found, objects with paper and paint to create still life and
interior scenes. The relationship between Braque and Picasso was broken by
an argument. Picasso's work of the early 1920's showed a considerable
involvement in Surrealism and he exhibited along side a number of the
Surrealists at this time. Breton hailed him as one of the initiators of the
movement in 1928 but by the latter part of the 1920's Picasso was painting
very different images of great tenseness focussing on despair and anguish.
Picasso's ability to make crucial contributions to so many of the artistic
developments of the first half of the century and yet retain his own
artistic path is perhaps the factor which sets him apart from any other
artist in history.
His cubism is fundamentally about the revelation, as objects are taken, turned around, and explored from all sides in a curious manner. Picasso constantly reinvented himself, tested the limits, and went beyond whatever medium he was working with. In his Analytic Cubism works he experiments in disassembling and reassembling forms, producing a new approach to the pictorial plane. In Picasso's artwork, networks of excitement are constantly opening up and changing in unexpected ways. His Synthetic Cubism pieces brought in color as he invented the collage principal. His works are so filled with curiosity and ideas, that the criteria of balance and finish become largely irrelevant. In Picasso's search for a new kind of pictorial architecture there is a sense of a need to rebuild, and his work was constantly changing and surprising.
As a printmaker, Picasso initially concentrated on etching, producing The
Vollard Suite in the 1930's. The Vollard Suite was created between 1930 and
1937 and was named after its publisher. It comprises of 73 sheets on five
main themes-'The Battle of Love', The Sculptor's Studio', the 'Rembrandt'
sheets and the 'Minotaur'- as well as 27 sheets on disparate themes
including three portraits of Vollard.

Picasso's artwork has been exhibited in galleries and museums throughout the world. In a time span of over seventy-five years, Picasso amazed the world with his versatility and genius. His art captures a unique style that is rich in personal expression and diversity. Beyond his illustrious talent for painting, Picasso has also been recognized for his innovative, technical advances in the fine art of lithography. Picasso bestowed upon the world a legacy of art that is to be admired for generations.


Certain works of art were selected and reproduced from the personal collection inherited by Marina Picasso, Picasso's granddaughter. All of these unique works were created after the original oeuvre of Picasso's own hand drawn lithographic plates. They were created under the supervision of Marcel Salinas, an outstanding chromist who worked closely with Picasso during his lifetime.
These limited edition lithographs are printed in accordance with the Picasso lithographic standard. Each edition is limited to five-hundred original lithographs, numbered and signed on the front by Marina Picasso with the embossed seals of the Picasso Estate and the chromist. The legend of the original work appears on the back with the phrase "Approved by the Heirs of Pablo Picasso."

Probably the most influential and controversial figure of modern art,
Picasso was at the forefront of the European avant-garde from the early
1900's until the end of the Second World War. His work involved radical
intellectualism, serious political commitment and, at the same time, playful
wit and association with his well publicised lifestyle. Very little has
happened since in art history which does not demand to be seen in some
relationship to his greatest achievements ...

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