PICASSO, Pablo
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Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was undoubtedly the most famous artist of the twentieth century. During his artistic career, which lasted more than 75 years, he created thousands of works using all kinds of materials: paintings, sculptures, prints, and ceramics. He almost single-handedly created modern art. He changed art more profoundly than any other artist of this century. First famous for his pioneering role in Cubism,Picasso continued to develop his art with a pace and vitality comparable to the accelerated technological and cultural changes of the twentieth century. Each change embodied a radical new idea, and it might be said that Picasso lived several artistic lifetimes.
Picasso was born on October 25, 1881, in Malaga,Spain, the son of an artist Jose Ruiz and Maria Picasso. Rather than adopt the common name Ruiz, the young Picasso took the more uncommon name of his mother. Already an artistic prodigy at the age of 14, Picasso completed the one-month qualifying examination for the Academy of Fine Arts in Barcelona in one day. From there, he went to the Academy of San Fernando in Madrid. Then returning to Barcelona in 1900, he frequented the city’s famous cabaret, Els Quatra Gats—a favorite of local intellectuals and artists.
From 1901 to 1904, Picasso entered his so-called Blue Period, named for the blue tonality of Picasso’s paintings. During this time, he frequently changed his residence between Barcelona and Paris. He spent his days in Paris studying the masterworks at the Louvre and his nights enjoying the company of fellow artists at cabarets like the Lapin Agile.
In 1905 and 1906, Picasso’s color and mood radically changed. He became fascinated with the acrobats, clowns, and wandering families of the circus world. He started to paint in subtle pinks and grays, often highlighted in brighter tones. This period became known as his Rose Period.
In 1907, Picasso painted Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, considered the watershed work of the twentieth-century art and an emblem of the Cubist movement. Cubism was equally the creation of Picasso and Georges Braque, and from 1911 to 1913 the two men were in frequent contact.
For Picasso, the 1920s were years of rich artistic exploration and great productivity.Picasso continued to design theater sets and painted in Cubist, Classical, andSurreal modes. From 1929 to 1931, he pioneered wrought iron sculpture with his old friend Julio Gonzalez. In the early 1930’s, Picasso did a large quantity of graphic illustrations.
In late April 1937, the world learned the shocking news of the saturation bombing of the civilian target of Guernica, Spain by the Nazi Luftwaffe. Picasso responded with Guernica, his great anti-war painting.
During World War II, Picasso lived in Paris, where he turned his energy to the art of ceramics. From 1947 to 1950, he pursued new methods of lithography. The 1950’s saw the beginning of a number of large retrospective exhibits of his works. During this time, he began to paint a series of works conceived as free variations on old master paintings.
In the 1960’s, he produced a monumental 50-foot sculpture for the Chicago Civic Center. In 1970,Picasso donated more than 800 of his works to the Berenguerde Aguilar Palace Museum in Barcelona.
Pablo Picasso died on April 8, 1973 in southern France at the age of 91.
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Art Institute of Chicago
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Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris
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Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio
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Corcoran Gallery, Washington DC
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Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK
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Dallas Museum of Art, Texas
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Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco
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Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
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Guggenheim Museum, New York City
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Hammer Museum of UCLA
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Harvard University Museum, Boston
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Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington D.C.
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Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indiana
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Kunsthaus Zurich
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Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland
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Los Angeles County Museum of Art
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Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
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Milwaukee Art Museum, Wisconsin
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Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux
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Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal
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Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France
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Musée National Picasso de Paris
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Musée National Picasso La Guerre et la Paix, Vallauris, France
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Musée National Picasso, Paris
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Musée Picasso d’Antibes
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Musée Picasso de Vallauris
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Museo Picasso Málaga, Spain
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Museu de Arte de São Paulo, Brazil
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Museu Picasso de Barcelona
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Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
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Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
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National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
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National Gallery, Australia, Canberra
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National Gallery, Canada
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National Gallery, Edinburgh
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National Gallery, London
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National Gallery, Prague
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National Gallery, Washington DC
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Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany
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Neue Pinakothek, Munich, Germany
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Norton Museum of Art, Palm Beach
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Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena
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Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach
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Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice
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Philadelphia Museum of Art
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Phoenix Art Museum, Arizona
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Portland Art Museum, Oregon
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Portland Museum of Art, Maine
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Reina Sofía National Museum, Madrid
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Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
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Royal Museums of Fine Arts, Belgium
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Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri
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San Diego Museum of Art, California
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San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
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Santa Barbara Museum of Art, CA
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Stedelijk Museum of Modern Art,Amsterdam
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Tate Gallery, London, Great Britain
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Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Iran
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The Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg
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The Hunt Museum, Limerick, Ireland
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The Museum of Modern Art, NY
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Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond
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Yale University Gallery, New Haven
…and countless other museums, galleries, and private collections around the world.
