You might commonly hear people jokingly say after they paint something, “I’m the next Picasso” or “I paint like Picasso”, but what does it mean to paint like Picasso? There’re legends in sports, in the music industry, in history and so forth, but Picasso was a legend of his own as a painter. He made paintings that are worth millions upon millions of dollars. In fact, his painting Les femmes d’Alger sold for 179.4 million, making it the highest price ever paid for a piece of artwork. Picasso was one of the most influential painters in the art industry during the 20th century.
Born in Málaga, Spain in the year of 1881, Pablo Picasso gained his artistic bone from his father who was an artist himself and a professor at the school of fine arts. He grew up around an artist so it’s no surprise that he would gain a great interest in art himself. Picasso ended up going to the school of fine arts and learning under his father for one year before changing school to the Academy of Arts. He moved to Paris in 1901, where he began to play around and test new forms of art, such as surrealism and founded a new style of art, named cubism. In a Biography of Picasso, the writer stated that, “he is well known because of the fact that he had the ability to create in any style which was prominent during the time.” Picasso could take whatever tragedy or issue that was happening within the country and create a beautiful work of art that portrayed a story. He did works with the blue period, the rose period, African influenced style, cubism, surrealism, and realism. He was very talented when it came to expanding his art styles and the knowledge of other forms of arts.
He met his wife when he joined the Russian Ballet in 1917, who would tour Rome. Her name was Olga Khoklova, she came from a family who had lived the upper-class lifestyle contrary to Picasso who had grew up around art and wasn’t as high on the social chart. They would marry in 1918, but unfortunately it didn’t stay that way. They eventually decided to part ways, because of how different they were, but they never divorced officially. She died in 1954, and in memory of her, he created portraits such as “Portrait d’Olga dans un fauteuil”. This seems sweet, but we see even with later girls he was fond of he also did painting of them and of his next wife, Jacqueline Roque.
Picasso was in his art occupation for 78 years and in that time, he created 13,500 paintings, 100,000 prints and engravings, 34,000 illustrations, as well as 300 sculptors. His works are known as the most expensive art work ever created and some of the best too. Picasso influenced many in the 20th century and even today in the 21st century. He is gone, but his legacy as the best artist to ever exist remains today and will remain forever.
