Picasso: Artistic Genius and Personal Struggles

“Nothing is more important than to create enthusiasm.”(MacDonald 101) Pablo Picasso’s keenness in his artwork was always very natural, but his ego made the people closest to him suffer the most. Pablo Picasso lived a life of misery, but was triumphant in his artwork and became arguably one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Pablo Picasso was born on October 25, 1881 in city of Málaga, Spain. Don José Ruiz Blasco, an art professor and painter, and Maria Picasso y Lopez were his parents. After the birth of Picasso, Don José took a teaching job at an art school (MacDonald 14). The family still did not have enough money to pay the landlord, so Don José paid with his paintings (MacDonald 14). In 1884, his parents had their second

The first masterpiece Picasso created was “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”. When the painting first appeared, the art world collapsed (PabloPicasso.org). The masterpiece includes five naked women with figures composed flat planes and faces inspired by African masks (PabloPicasso.org). This artwork was the most unprecedented piece of modern art (PabloPicasso.org). Picasso then found freedom which led to Cubism (PabloPicasso.org). Picasso, himself, and Georges Braque invented cubism. Cubism emphasizes the combination of forms in the picture (PabloPicasso.org). The way he used the color, shape, and geometrical figures changed the way of art (PabloPicasso.org). The Cubist Collage instituted letters and scarps into cubist paintings (Picasso). “Still Life with Chair Caning” is one of the first and most celebrated Cubist Collages

Towards the end of Picasso’s life, he slept very little but painted a lot (MacDonald 109). On April 8, 1973, Pablo Picasso died in Mougins, France. He is buried at Chateau de Vauvenargues in Provence (MacDonald 109). In his lifetime, he created 13,500 paintings, 100,000 prints and engravings, and 34,000 illustrations (PabloPicasso.org). Picasso was honored the Lenin Peace prize in 1950, and then again in 1961 (Biography.com). He switched styles, which made him seem like five or six different artists rather than one (Biography.com). Pablo Picasso had many hardships. All his life, he was a self-centered man who made fun of other people. The countless wives and mistresses he left him because they were unhappy. His dedication to art was too much for the people who had loved him. During his lifetime many people had passed away. Two of his good friends, mother, wife, and sister had all died. But many of those tragic events allowed him to create some of the most astounding artworks in history. Through the misfortunes in Picasso’s life, he was able to rise above and become one of the most significant artists of the 20th