Pablo Picasso’s Historic Art Career & Cubist Influences

Pablo Picasso was encouraged by his father, an art teacher, to follow him into the art scene and at a very early age it was clear that Pablo’s natural talent would take him further than his father. He joined the Barcelona School of Fine Arts at the age of 14 and his father sacrificed his own art in order to help Pablo Picasso progress as quickly in his career and training as possible.

Picasso entered a phase which lasted from 1900 to 1906 which is referred to as his Blue and Rose Period. As in the name, the blue period involved blue in many of his works, generally representing a negative side of his subjects’ lives. This style gained popularity even with the most traditional of art experts. His paintings picked up a more pink tone during his later rose period.

Pablo Picasso moved to Paris permanently in 1904. Being the world’s capital of arts, Paris helped introduce Picasso to other famous artists such as Henri Matisse, Joan Miro and George Braques. Henri Matisse in particular became a great friend to Picasso and they stayed close friends.

Picasso’s new direction led to the creation of the Cubist movement, in conjunction with other famous artists George Braque and Juan Gris. Cubism is based on construction through geometrical shapes. In later years, Synthetic Cubism was developed, incorporating various views of an object together.

Picasso’s style developed into symbolism in his classics “Guernica”, “Dying horse” and “Weeping woman”. Guernica is a huge black and white canvas to represent the destruction of a Basque village during the Spanish Civil War.

Guernica was stored in the museum of Modern Art, New York up until 1981. Picasso allowed it to return to Spanish’s shores after the end of Fascist rule, and it was taken to the Prado Museum and the Queen Sofia Center of Art in Madrid.