Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso and his friend, Georges Braque developed Cubism, which is the attempt to show how much space an object really takes up on a flat surface. Cubism is way of visually expressing three dimensions on a two dimensional picture plane.

Picasso was an only child and he was born on October 25, 1881. When he was 36 years old, Picasso went to Rome, Italy to paint scenery for the ballet. When he was there working, he met one of the ballerinas, Olga Koklova. He thought she was beautiful and he fell head over heels in love with her and eventually married her! They had a son named Paulo. Picasso also had children named Maya, Claude and Paloma. Paloma is now a perfume designer and you can find her perfumes in very nice stores. Picasso did many paintings of his children and his wives. When he was 55 years old, a Civil War broke out in Spain, his home country, and the ancient city of Guernica was destroyed. To let out his rage about this war he painted a mural and called it "Guernica" (shown above). During World War II, Picasso lived in Paris, France which was under Nazi occupation. Because the Nazis did not approve of modern art, Picasso had to hide his artwork in a secret vault in the bank of France! Picasso did all kinds of art: sculptures, printmaking, ceramics, and collages.