Pablo Picasso

1881、Malaga ― 1973、Mougins
Picasso was born 1881 in Málaga, a port city located in the southern region of Spain. Under the supervision of his father who was an art teacher, Picasso started to show his artistic talent from his younger days. Eventually, he began his full-fledged training of painting at the art school in Barcelona.
Starting from the autumn of 1900, Picasso travelled repetitiously between Paris and Barcelona. After losing his best friend, Casagemas due to his suicide in 1901, he started to depict people at lower levels of society mainly in blue colors. The style of this era is called the “blue period”.
After moving his residence to the atelier, “Le Bateau Lavoir” in Montmartre, Picasso eventually changed his color tone to the “rose period” with warmer colors. Then Picasso’s pictorial space changed dramatically which eventually lead to the birth of “Les Demoiselles d'Avignon” in 1907. During this period, “cubism” was invented through the competition between Picasso and Braque. This is an advanced version of Cézanne’s attempt in grasping geometrical form. This reconstruction in an abstract form within flat canvas was a revolution in the twentieth century paintings.
Picasso’s painting styles went through various changes after the cubism including “neoclassicism”, “surrealism” and an expression protesting tragic aspects of war such as his magnum opus, “Guernica”.With his superhuman creativity, Picasso produced humongous amount of works that is not limited to paintings, but also to sculpture, prints, ceramics and etc.