Picasso was born in Malaga in 1881 . He was an artist of international renown, and yet he was profoundly Spanish.
It was once Picasso moved to the “Bateau-Lavoir” in Montmartre in 1904 that he experienced fame that never ceased to grow.
In 1943, he met François Gilot, the “Flower Woman.” Together, they had two children, Claude and Paloma. They moved to the South of France. In 1946, Picasso met the Ramié couple.He discovered a new passion for pottery and ceramics thanks to the Madoura workshop of Vallauris.
Picasso was born in Malaga in 1881 . He was an artist of international renown, and yet he was profoundly Spanish. He began painting at the age of 8.
The beginning of his career was difficult, whether in Spain or in Paris where he arrived in the year 1900. But the passion to create was such that he accepted all sorts of freelance gigs. He decorated the walls of the famous “Els Quatre Gats” café, where Picasso met Casagemas, a great friend who was unfortunately doomed by fate.
This great friendship, destroyed by Casagemas’ suicide, threw Picasso’s life into a profound upheaval. The “Burial of Casagemas” launched Picasso’s Blue Period, marked by sadness, poverty, solitude and anguish. From this period, among others, Picasso painted, “La Célestine,” depicting the madame of a brothel in Barcelona. Here the accent is placed on the one-eyed gaze of this old woman entirely enveloped in different shades of blue. There is also a self-portrait from that time. The artist’s pallid face is squeezed into an overcoat that scarcely protects from the cold.
It was once Picasso moved to the “Bateau-Lavoir” in Montmartre in 1904 that he experienced fame that never ceased to grow. Thanks to Fernande Olivier, a young woman of unfettered morals, he established a very hectic social life for himself. The “Bateau-Lavoir” was like a “Spanish Commune.” People ate what anyone would bring and there was always a party on. Guests would sleep wherever they could. They came to paint, to sculpt and to compose. Max Jacob, Guillaume Apollinaire, Gertrude Stein, Juan Gris and Modigliani were regular party guests.
One thing led to another, and Picasso’s friends helped spread awareness of his work. In this way, Ambroise Vollard, and dealer and gallery owner Berthe Weill, became interested in his paintings. Soon Picasso left “Bateau-Lavoir” and began his Rose Period. Starting in 1901, he marked his paintings with the famous “Picasso” signature.
More women and more encounters followed. One of them, Olga Khoklova, managed to marry him. Together, they had a son named Paul, painted as the little “Pierrot” by his father.
Picasso was caught up in the spiral of success. All of his encounters were of capital importance, including meetings with Kahnweiller, Matisse, Cocteau, and Stravinsky. With Diaguilev and the Russian Ballet, he created theatre decor, including immense mural tapestries.
Photo credit Jacques Gomot Office de tourisme de Saint-Paul
In 1907, he painted the “Young Ladies of Avignon.” He met Georges Braque, and together they formed the Cubist movement. With an insatiable appetite to produce, Picasso created collages, sculptures on cardboard, metal or iron thread in a sculpting project for Guillaume Apollinaire. He met Marie-Thérèse Walter, a young girl with an athletic build, with whom he had a daughter named Maïa.
In 1937, Picasso was horrified by the bombing of Guernica by the German Luftwaffe. In shades of gray, black and white, this painting allowed him to demonstrate his opposition to violence. Animal iconography figures prominently in the work, in which the horse represents people and the bull symbolizes brutality. Also featured, the artist’s distress before these bodies torn asunder, murdered children and weeping mothers.
As his life with Dora Maar came to an end, he painted “The Crying Woman.” With the arrival of the Second World War, out of bravado in opposition to the German occupation, Picasso joined the French Communist Party. The Germans liked Picasso’s work, and even asked him to sell to them. Picasso refused, and as an immediate consequence, the Germans cut off heat to his apartment on the Rue des Grands Augustins. The winter was bitterly cold, but Picasso kept working, notably on “El Guernica.”
In 1943, he met François Gilot, the “Flower Woman.” Together, they had two children, Claude and Paloma. They moved to the South of France. In 1946, Picasso met the Ramié couple.He discovered a new passion for pottery and ceramics thanks to the Madoura workshop of Vallauris. Over a twenty-year period, he produced nearly 4000 pieces, some of which were unique and produced in limited number. With the same spirit of joy, he created platters, plates and pitchers, decorated with owls, goats and scenes of bullfighting.
He fashioned raw, white ceramic blocks, covered in glazing, with relief elements depicting fish or even goats’ heads.
At this time, Picasso divided his time between Golfe-Juan and Vallauris with frequent visits to Nice to meet his Master, Matisse.
Picasso’s relationship with Françoise Gilot crumbled and finally fell apart. But with ladies ever in waiting, Picasso married Jacqueline Roque, with whom he moved into the “Villa California” in Cannes. The villa inspired an admirable series of sketches called the “California Notebooks.” He married Jacqueline in Vallauris on the 2nd of March, 1961, and in June he moved to Notre-Dame-de-Vie, in the hills above Mougins. There he worked in particular on sheet metal cut-outs, including the famous “Chair.”
Matisse
