Born in Malaga in 1881, Pablo Picasso began to study at the Academy of Fine Arts in Barcelona in 1894
. After dividing his time between Barcelona, Horta de Hebro and Paris, the painter finally settled in the French capital in 1904. In Paris Picasso led a busy social life that led to a friendship with the poets Max Jacob and Apollinaire and the painter Ma
tisse. The name ôBlue Periodö is used to designate the stylistic phase of his work between 1901 and 1904, characterized chiefly by pictures of poor people, acrobats and family affections, in which bluish tones prevailed (\i Woman in Blue\i0 , Madrid, Mus
eu Reina Sofia). This was followed by his ôRose Periodö (1905-06), marked by a particular sensitivity to color (\i Acrobats\i0 , G÷teborg, Konstmuseum). However, the painter was most concerned with the problem of the representation of reality and the dis
position of masses, as was already evident in the portrait of \i Gertrude Stein\i0 he painted in 1906 (New York, Metropolitan Museum). His encounter with the simplification of forms in primitive art and study of the work of CΘzanne led him to paint the
picture entitled \i Les Demoiselles d'Avignon\i0 (New York, Museum of Modern Art) in 1907, regarded as the first Cubist painting. His meeting with Georges Braque led Picasso to probe the potential of this new language more deeply, giving rise to the per
iod of Analytical Cubism, which saw the Spanish artist engaged in painting portraits, landscapes and still lifes (1908-1910). These are the years of his \i Portrait of Ambroise\b \b0 Vollard\i0 (Moscow, Pushkin Museum) and the \i Factory at Horta de He
bro\i0 (St. Petersburg, Hermitage), works characterized by the analysis and breakdown of the plastic components that define the object. The later shift to Synthetic Cubism marked the complete autonomy of the work of art, which was no longer an expressio
n of appearances. Consequently, the painter was unrestricted in his elaboration of images, free even to use different materials like sand, newsprint and string (\i Guitar\i0 , Oslo, National Gallery). The complex and articulated forms of the analytical p
hase gave way to constructions composed of simplified planes, assembled in a totally free way with associations that confer a surreal aspect on the works (\i The Three Musicians\i0 , Philadelphia, Museum of Art; \i Fishing at Antibes\i0 , New York, Museu
m of Modern Art). A supreme example of PicassoÆs mature language is the colossal \i Guernica\i0 (Madrid, Museo Reina Sofia), dated 1937. The many studies that preceded the execution of this work have been preserved. The painting illustrates the bombing
of the Spanish town during the Civil War, when Picasso was director of the Museo del Prado. Yet the artist also made ventures back into the realm of figurative art, as can be seen from the ôneoclassicalö works that he produced at the beginning of the twe
nties after a long visit to Italy in the company of the choreographer Sergei Diaghilev and a study of IngresÆs painting (\i Three Women at the Fountain\i0 , New York, Museum of Modern Art; \i Harlequin\i0 , Paris, MusΘe dÆOrsay). Politically committed to
world peace, Picasso devoted himself in the years of his maturity to the creation of a ceramics workshop at Vallauris, an activity that he carried out in parallel with that of his graphic work. Considered the greatest artist of the twentieth century, Pi
cassoÆs work, which embraced sculpture as well (\i Glass and Knife\i0 , London, Tate Gallery; \i Goat\i0 , Paris, MusΘe Picasso), has set an example for many contemporary European and American artists.
