Pablo Picasso
Biography
Pablo Picasso is considered to be one of the most prolific artists of the twentieth century and the leading artist of the Cubism movement. His use of radical form and perspective coupled with his boisterous yet moody and overall eccentric personality cemented him in the art community.
Pablo began to study art at age 11, his father was an artist and encouraged him early on. He studied in both Madrid and Barcelona, surrounded by bohemian artists poet, and writers. He found inspiration in the writings of Friedrich Nietzsche and the paintings of Edvard Munch and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.
His art has been categorized into several ‘periods’ often attributed to his varying relationships with women. Notable are the back-to-back Blue and Rose periods, with contrasting colors and implied outlooks on life. As a collective the paintings from these time periods are both erotic and violent containing distorted, monstrous people as the central focus. In the 1930s after hearing of the bombing of Guernica, where 1,600 innocent civilians were killed or wounded. He created a painting of the scene highlighting the gruesome event, this political painting led to his exile from Spain. ‘Guernica’ would become the banner of Spain’s escape from fascism later.
Picasso died on April 8, 1973 at his home in Mougins, France at the age of 91, his net worth was between $100–250 million, and the legacy of his wealth grows exponentially to this day.
Today, his works are held in the collections of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tate Gallery in London, the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, as well as institutions devoted solely to his life work, such as the Museo Picasso Málaga, the Museu Picasso in Barcelona, and the Musée National Picasso in Paris.
Born: 1881
Died: 1973
Education: School of Fine Arts in Barcelona, Madrid’s Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando
Exhibitions
Select Exhibitions
2022
Pablo Picasso: Black & White, LEVY HAMBURG | GERMANY
Picasso: Painting the Blue Period, THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION WASHINGTON D.C. | DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA | USA
2021
Picasso-Giacometti, MUSEUM VOORLINDEN WASSENAAR | NETHERLANDS
Picasso: Painting the Blue Period, AGO, ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO TORONTO | ONTARIO | CANADA
Picasso. Figures, FRIST ART MUSEUM NASHVILLE | TENNESSEE | USA
2020
Pablo Picasso: Drawing in Colour, REMAI MODERN SASKATOON | SASKATCHEWAN | CANADA
Picasso. The Sketchbooks, MUSEU PICASSO DE BARCELONA BARCELONA | SPAIN
Pablo Picasso & Dietrich Klinge, GALERIE BOISSÉREE COLOGNE | GERMANY
Picasso Poet, MUSÉE PICASSO PARIS 3E | PARIS | FRANCE
Pablo Picasso: The Ceramics, HUXLEY-PARLOUR GALLERY MAYFAIR | LONDON | UK
Picasso & Matisse: Beauty is a Line, RIJKSMUSEUM TWENTHE ENSCHEDE | NETHERLANDS
2019
Picasso Poet, MUSEU PICASSO DE BARCELONA BARCELONA | SPAIN
Picasso. Magic Paintings, MUSÉE PICASSO PARIS 3E | PARIS | FRANCE
Seeing Picasso. Maker of the Modern, PACE PALO ALTO PALO ALTO | CALIFORNIA | USA
Picasso and Antiquity. Line and clay, MUSEUM OF CYCLADIC ART ATHENS | GREECE
Pablo Picasso, NATIONAL MUSEUM IN WARSAW WARSAW | POLAND
2018
Pablo Picasso: Olga Khokhlova, PUSHKIN STATE MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS MOSCOW | RUSSIA
Pablo Picasso. Passion and Guilt, MUSEUM KAMPA, THE JAN AND MEDA MLÁDEK FOUNDATION PRAGUE | CZECH REPUBLIC
Picasso. Blue and Rose, MUSÉE D’ORSAY 7E | PARIS | FRANCE
2017
From Picasso with Love, INDIANAPOLIS MUSEUM OF ART, NEWFIELDS IDAVILLE | INDIANA | USA
Degas to Picasso: Creating Modernism in France, MILWAUKEE ART MUSEUM MILWAUKEE | WISCONSIN | USA
2016
Picasso. Sculptures, BOZAR CENTRE FOR FINE ARTS BRUSSELS | BELGIUM
Picasso Portraits, NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY, LONDON LONDON | UK
Picasso’s Picassos, GAGOSIAN GALLERY, NEW YORK (976 MADISON AVENUE) NEW YORK | USA
2015
Picasso Sculpture, MOMA, THE MUSEUM OF MODERN ART MIDTOWN | NEW YORK | USA
Pablo Picasso, OPERA GALLERY, SINGAPORE SINGAPORE | SINGAPORE
2014
Pablo Picasso, MODERNA MUSEET, MALMO MALMÖ | SWEDEN
Matisse and Picasso: A Friendly Rivalry, MCNAY ART MUSEUM SAN ANTONIO | TEXAS | USA
Picasso Prints: Myths, Minotaurs, and Muses, PHILADELPHIA MUSEUM OF ART PHILADELPHIA | PENNSYLVANIA | USA
Picasso The Printmaker: An Intimate View, NATIONAL ARTS CLUB GRAMERCY PARK | NEW YORK | USA
2013
Francisco Durrio – Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain
The Essential Robert Indiana, Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, USA
Bloomsbury & Beyond, Abbot Hall Art Gallery, Kendal, England
Picasso, Museum Jorn (former Silkeborg Art Museum), Silkeborg, Denmark
Picasso: The Vollard Suite, Hood Museum of Art, Hanover, USA
Yo Picasso: Self-portraits, Museo Picasso, Barcelona, Spain
L’art en guerre de Picasso a Dubuffet – Museo Guggenheim Bilbao, Spain
Over, Under, Next: Experiments in Mixed Media, 1913–present, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
A Taste for Modernism, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, USA
Pablo Picasso’s Woman in the Studio, Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, Norman, USA
Pablo Picasso: The Prints and Ceramics, National Museum of Art, Osaka, Japan
Highlights, Statens museum for kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark
British and French Modernism, Auckland Art Gallery, Auckland, New Zealand
Société Anonyme: Modernism for America, Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, USA
1913: The Year of Modernism, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, USA
Pablo Picasso, Museo Picasso Málaga, Spain
Picasso Black and White, Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, USA
Becoming Picasso, Courtauld Institute of Art, London, England
Analysing Cubism, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
1913 Armory Show Revisited, International Print Center, New York, USA
La obra maestra desconocida – Museu d´Art Espanyol Contemporani (Fundación Juan March), Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Picasso and Chicago, The Art Institute of Chicago, USA
Picasso, grabador (1904-1935), Museo de Arte Abstracto Español, Cuenca, Spain
2012
Picasso Black and White, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
Picasso’s Drawings, 1890–1921: Reinventing Tradition, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Pablo Picasso, Galerie Miro, Prague, Czech Republic
Picasso and the Mysteries of Life: Deconstructing La Vie, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, USA
Splendour of Line, Beck & Eggeling International Fine Art, Dusseldorf, Germany
Picasso, Capolavori dal Museo Nazionale Picasso di Parigi, Palazzo Reale, Milan, Italy
Picasso, les chemins du Sud, Centre d’art la Malmaison, Cannes, France
Combas et les céramiques de Picasso à Saint-Tropez, Artisyou, Paris, France
Picasso, Masterpieces From Musée National Picasso, Paris, France – Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Hong Kong
Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris, France
African Influences on Modern Art – Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, USA
Head of musketeer, Museo Picasso Málaga, Spain
Pablo Picasso: Selected Prints and Ceramics, Bechtler Museum of Modern Art, Charlotte, USA
Picasso And Beyond, KM fine Arts, Chicago, USA
Un collage antes del collage, Museo Picasso, Barcelona, Spain
2011
Picasso’s Drawings, 1890–1921: Reinventing Tradition, The Frick Collection, New York, USA
Picasso: Frieden und Freiheit, Albertina, Vienna, Austria
Picasso Prints, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, USA
Picasso 1936: Traces of an Exhibition, Museo Picasso, Barcelona, Spain
2010
Picasso: Themes and Variations, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
Picasso and the Avante-Garde in Paris, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, USA
2009
Picasso et les maîtres, Grand Palais, Paris, France
Pablo Picasso: Graphic works 1904-1905 from the Gallery of Ambroise Vollard in Paris, National Gallery, Prague, Czech Republic (solo)
Pablo Picasso: Mosqueteros, Gagosian Gallery, New York, USA (solo)
2008
Focus: Picasso Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA (solo)
Picasso, Auroportrait, Suntory Museum, Osaka, Japan (solo)
Picasso en la Fotografia, La Caja Negra, Madrid, Spain (solo)
Die Erneuerung des Sehens, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, Winterthur, Switzerland
Monet to Dali, First Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, USA
Maternity: Images of Motherhood, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, Scotland
2007
Picasso’s Desmoiselles d’Avignon, Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA (solo)
Chartae, Galleria Tega, Milan, Italy
Picasso & Matisse, Andipa Gallery, London, England
Apocalypse Now: The Theater of War, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, USA
Late Work, Galerie Andrea Caratsch, Zurich, Switzerland (solo)
2006
Picasso & Matisse: Prints and Drawings, Andipa Gallery, London, England
2005
Picasso to Pop, Contessa Gallery, Cleveland, USA
American and European Selections, Richard Gray Gallery, New York, USA
2004
CUBISM AND ITS LEGACY: The Gift of Gustav and Elly Kahnweiler, Tate Liverpool, England
The Spanish Portrait: From El Greco to Picasso, Museo National del Prado, Madrid, Spain
2003
Matisse – Picasso, Tate Modern and travels to Paris and The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
Entre el clavel y la espada: Rafael Alberti en su siglo, Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporaneo, Seville, Spain
1966
85th birthday and Hommage a Pablo Picasso, Petit-Palais, Paris, France
1925
Participates in first Surrealist exhibition, Paris, France
1912
Blue Rider exhibition participant, Munich, Germany
1901
First exhibition in Paris, Vollard Gallery, Paris, France
Exhibition of works by Picasso and Casas, Sala Parés, Barcelona, Spain
1897
First exhibition, Hostal d’Els Quatre Gats, Barcelona, Spain