Artists Biography of Pablo Picasso

Picasso is not just a man and his work. Picasso is always a legend, indeed almost a myth. In the public view he has long since been the personification of genius in modern art. Picasso is an idol, one of those rare creatures who act as crucibles in which the diverse and often chaotic phenomena of culture are focused, who seem to body forth the artistic life of their age in one person. The same thing happens in politics, science, sport. And it happens in art.

(Warncke, Picasso, 7)

Pablo Picasso was born in the final decades of the 19th century and his life spanned for approximately three quarters into the 20th century. He is one of the most famous contemporary artists. Picasso is most known for his paintings, but he also was an artist of a variety of arts including textiles, sculptures, and pottery. He was a Spaniard, born, raised, and educated in Barcelona. He showed signs of great artistic interest and prowess during his childhood. His father instructed him at fine arts school. After years of success in academia, he left what he felt to be a stuffy atmosphere and attitude regarding art, and began studying art on his own. He spent much of his life in Spain and in Paris. He was a prolific artist who drew upon his life and the realities of those...

Picasso saw many achievements in his lifetime, one of which was achieving great fame as an artist during his own lifetime. It is a challenge to be a publically known figure, especially to be a globally known artist. His fame achieved great heights even while he was alive, and certainly after his death in the 1970s. Artists, historians, and even just fans of his work continue to study his approach, his process, his perspective, his philosophy, and most obviously, his impressive body of work.
Picasso's Spanish heritage very much informed his work. One of his most famous paintings is called Guernica. This painting was made in 1937. The painting was commissioned by the Spanish Republican government. They specifically asked Picasso to create a painting in response to the bombing of the real Guernica, a famous incident of the Spanish Civil War. Guernica was a Basque town that was bombed by Germans. The intention of the painting was to bring this bombing to the world's attention to the actions of General Franco and to the Spanish Civil War in general. The town was central to the Republican resistance movement as well as a known cultural center, a sort of Mecca of Basque culture. This painting was used as part of the World's Fair in Paris later during that same year.…