Pablo Picasso: The Public Art and Private Life of the Maestro

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and would have dire consequences for those lucky enough or unlucky enough to be close to the painter but we have nine decades to cover so let's dip our brushes and get right into it [Music] it was the 25th of october 1881 in malaga andalucia southern spain local painter arts teacher and museum curator jose ruiz blasco and his wife maria picasso lopez welcomed their firstborn child this baby would later sign his masterpieces simply as picasso but he was christened as pablo diego jose francisco de paula juan nemo maria delos remedios cipriano de la santosina trinidad ruiz picasso oh my god that was an insane mouthful and i'm sure i destroyed the pronunciation on it with a name like that we may consider his birth certificate as his first work of art many would follow from an early age boy pablo was introduced to art by his father a good teacher with great technical knowledge picasso would later acknowledge the strong influence that his mother and aunt had on him his mother maria in particular would boost zigo telling him things like when you grow up if you are a soldier you will become general if you are a priest you will become pope the strong feminine influence on pablo have led some biographers to infer an eatable complex and a strong antagonism towards his father but actually picasso always respected his father jose and acknowledged his teachings and influence he would later say every time i draw a man automatically i think of my father as far as i am concerned the man is don jose and that will be so as long as i live as pablo grew up his father realized his incredible talent sometimes asking the boy to finish his paintings for him pablo would also create his own works of art at the time still inspired by classic conventional and academic art but he already showed a keen eye for certain subjects that would re-emerge in later life bull fighting for example by 1891 the ruiz picassos were not doing great financially and pablo had been joined by younger sisters concepcion and lola and just when don jose could do with some extra money the municipality of malaga had shut down the museum that he was working at dad was suddenly jobless so he relocated the entire family to la coruna on the northwestern coast of spain there he was offered a new job as a drawing teacher with pablo as one of his students at the age of 14 young ruiz picasso was painting oil paintings of family friends but also subjects that were more on the fringes of society the celebration and representation of misfits would be another recurring theme in picasso's career worth mentioning from this period the old fisherman and the barefoot girl then in 1895 the family experienced a tragedy daughter concepcion known as cheetah contracted diphtheria pablo made a pact with god he would renounce painting if he let conchita survive unfortunately she died according to biographer john richardson this left a profound and lasting sense of guilt in pablo's psyche after the tragedy the family moved again this time to barcelona here don jose would be teaching at lelonia the most prominent local art school the move was a godsend for pablo barcelona was a thriving cultural center influenced by artistic innovators that emanated from paris again pablo enrolled in his father's school impressing other teachers and examiners with his maturing techniques in 1896 pablo started to attract the attention of the press and prized juries thanks to his canvases science and charity and first communion by depicting this catholic rite of passage pablo marked his own symbolic transition from childhood to adulthood from student to future maestro in the autumn of 1897 pablo left barcelona to study at the royal academy of san fernando in madrid this was a great opportunity but he disliked their stuffy curriculum and preferred to spend hours at the prado museum admiring the masters his poor attendance record angered don jose who decided to cut pablo's allowance the young painter spent a miserable winter in madrid he was cold ill and penniless a friend manuel polares came to the rescue inviting him to spend eight months in his native village in catalonia ordered airbrush this was a small town on the mountains geographically and culturally far removed from the bustle of madrid and barcelona that pablo loved so much and yet the months in horta were a crucial transformative moment another rite of passage pablo would later often say everything i know i learned in polaris village in horta pablo learned how to harvest hay and grapes how to shear sheep and slaughter pigs he connected with nature and the traditions of rural catalonia he removed himself from civilization as he emanuel retired for weeks at a cave there pablo honed his skills sketching and painting the landscapes and the local people in february 1899 he had regained his health and his energy he was going to return to barcelona longer as a student but as an artist ready to take on the world [Music] back in barcelona pablo's favorite haunts became the tavern els quattro gats or the four cats this cafe was modeled after the famous parisian cabaret le chate noire a microcosm of young and daring intellectuals and artists pablo stood out thanks to his charisma and energy soon making friends with painter carls casagamers and poet james cebartes pablo began to make a name for himself but that name wasn't pablo it was picasso his catalan friends decided that his father's surname ruiz was too commonplace for such an original character his mothers instead had an exotic ring which suited the young artist in february 1900 the 18 year old picasso exhibited 150 works at the four cats it was such a success that several drawings were published and one painting last moments was chosen for the universal exposition in paris after this success picasso decided to move to paris after all that's where the real art was at in october of 1900 picasso and his friend casa gamers moved into a studio in montmartre where they drank life to the dregs they frequented artists dancers cafes museums and housesville repute picasso fell in love with toulouse-lautrec and agar and found a good client and an art dealer in pedro menache carl's questo gamers meanwhile fell in love with the young lady lor gargalow known as germaine germain eventually rejected carls who may have already been suffering from depression on february 17 1901 picasso was back in barcelona when he received down news because the gamers had tried to shoot jermaine missed her and later turned the gun on himself and picasso was deeply shocked in 1901 he dedicated three paintings to his friend the most famous one being the death of casagamus a large candle on the right-hand side illuminates the background and strong hues of red orange yellow and green in sharp contrast the face of gulls and the foreground is tinted in pale blues and greens in picasso's own words the death of his friend initiated what became known as his blue period this is when he painted almost a monochrome favoring shades of blue and blue green only occasionally using other colors the themes are also subtly blue or permeated by a sense of sadness desolation and depression typical subjects of the blue period include prisoners beggars or traveling performers like the old guitarist from 1903. the painting gives picasso the occasion to celebrate the downtrodden of society but the old blind musician and his angular posture are also a homage to one of picasso's favorites el greco after the death of casagamus picasso returned to paris in may of 1901. here he lived briefly in his friend's old apartment and even had a short relationship with germaine between 1901 and 1904 the painter traveled back and forth between paris and spain further developing his style and technique perhaps influenced by his friends and poet max jacob the casos are drifted away from reality instead he tried to express the subjective and spiritual experiences of what he was living during another period of financial hardship picasso could not afford oil paint he had to resort to drawing only which refined his technique and made him pay greater attention to space and anatomy finally after settling in paris for good in april of 1904 picasso was about to shed his old blue skin and enter a new period tinted in rows the rose period covers picasso's activity from 1904-90 the cold and somber blues gradually gave way to a warmer palette dominated by pink orange and red the subjects appeared less desperate than those in the blue period but still had an air of pensive melancholy they were often circus troops or street urchins who frequented the bato levoir building hosting dozens of small artists studios one of them is the boy with a pipe portrayed in 1905. at the bato lavoie picasso met and fell in love with a model ferdinand olivier who did not find him particularly seductive even still she could not deny that the inner fire that you felt in him gave off a kind of magnetism the two began an affair and ferdinand became the painter's muse he venerated her but adoration came with darker shades possessiveness and jealousy picasso insisted that ferdinand give up modeling and when she expressed a desired pain pablo dismissed her aspirations saying that women should not trespass into male territory every time picasso left their apartment he locked her inside and took away the key he agreed to give her a key only when she almost died in a house fire it was one of the earliest signs that picasso struggled to maintain normal healthy relationships with women artistically though picasso was finding new heights critics collectors and other artists all took notice of the rose period artworks picasso made influential friends such as writer and art patron gertrude stein poet gillam appolinaire writers jean cocteau and francis scott fitzgerald as his popularity grew picasso was ready to shed his new skin and enter a new period which would eventually lead him to cubism from autumn 1905 to autumn of 1906 the painter absorbed a string of influences that would ultimately shape his remaining work changing the art world forever picasso began studying the work of paul suzanne absorbing his concept that the artist should capture the process rather than the result a vision this allowed artists to depict multiple angles of the same object at once free from the constraints of one point perspective then in the summer of 1906 picasso and fernand took a trip to gossel and catalonia here pablo took to carving wooden sculptures which influenced his later depiction of the human face finally after returning to paris the painter visited exhibitions of prehistoric spanish sculpture as well as african and oceanic masks all of these influences can be seen in his portrait of gertrude stein of 1906 in which picasso radically simplified her face into a stylized mask it could be said that this is when pablo stopped painting what he saw and started painting what he thought the influences of the past months erupted into a watershed work of art the demiseles d'avignon or the young women of avignon [Music] the original title of the brothel of avignon in reference to a street in barcelona known for prostitution not the french town so yes there was absolutely no mystery on these young ladies professional status that explains the bold and solicitous gaze of the five women with a noted undercurrent of sexual tension the painting shocked picasso's friends and critics not only for its theme but especially for the technique that he used he distorted the body of the models challenging the traditional idealization of female beauty moreover he omitted perspective there is no vanishing point nowhere for the eye to escape no way to avoid the young women and their glands the large canvas was the turning point away from the african or primitivist period entered into cubism picasso developed this style in partnership with painter george bragg both influenced by suzanne the two sliced the pictorial space attempting to see all angles at once they ditched scale and perspective shapes were simplified into blocks they painted the analysis of a form instead of its appearance they also introduced the technique of collage by embedding found objects or even trash into their work they performed an unprecedented synthesis combining everyday chaos into the beauty of art pablo's art started selling well and in the autumn of 1909 he and fernand were able to move into a proper apartment together two years later just when his fame was soaring pablo dumped his muse beginning an affair with model eva gooel the paintings she inspired are marked by the words majorly my beautiful fame brought some unwanted attention too when the mona lisa was stolen from the louvre in august 1911 poet guillermo polinaire and picasso were celebrity suspects picasso was innocent of course although he confessed to buying iberian statuettes pilfered from the louvre almost exactly three years later a pollinator would go through a much worse ordeal as world war one broke out he was called to arms the same fate befell many in picasso's circle but not him as a citizen of neutral spain he was under no obligation to serve all he suffered was solitude and melancholy made worse in december of 1915 when eva died of tuberculosis a depressed picasso was rescued by jean cocteau in the march of 1916 he involved the painter in parade a show of ballet rooses which was a troupe led by ballet presario sergey daigolev picasso designed stage decor and masks for the dancers all in cubist style he even got to tour with the troop while visiting rome pompei and naples in 1917 he absorbed the influence of ancient classical art at the same time he courted one of the dancers ukrainian olga kokolova not one to move slow picasso and olga were married one year later and she became his leading muse inspiring some 140 works of art that belong to his next phase the classic period in the first works olga is portrayed as a delicate and melancholic beauty later she morphs into a disfigured threatening presence but she was not the monster in this story over the course of their marriage picasso had several affairs physically assaulted olga and even kept her sedated when it was convenient for him in november of 1921 pigasso dumped her just when she was pregnant with their first child paolo picasso and olga tried to reconcile but in 1927 he started a new affair just when olga's health was deteriorating due to cancer the new mistress was 17 year old marie therese walter he had met her by total chance outside the department store captivated by her beauty the painter grabbed the girl by our arm and said i am picasso you and i are going to do great things together what they did together was well you can use your imagination on that one their relationship was passionate and intensely sexual possibly with a sadistic element to it it appears that marie terese was at times terrified of having sex with picasso who enjoyed seeing her cry this type of relationship permeated works like figures at the seaside of 1931. the canvas is full of sexual symbols but there is a threatening element to it stylistically figures also portrayed the influence of the surrealist movement and picasso's friendship with salvador dali on september 5th 1935 moritaris gave birth to picasso's daughter maya who he would portray frequently for the rest of his life the couple instead split shortly afterwards occasionally reigniting their affair many years later in 1977 marie three's walter hung herself another relationship concluded over the summer of 1935 this is when olga left pablo for good although he never conceded a divorce their marriage officially ended only on february the 11th 1955 when she died of cancer 1935 was a troubled year in general picasso had been going through a creative block once a darling of the press and the avant-garde circles he was now facing negative reviews the master was settling into a pattern he needed to enter a new period to revitalize his art and to enter a new period he was going to need a new muse quite promptly a new muse came right along poet painter and photographer henriette theodora markovich better known as dora ma she was a picasso side from 1936 to 1943 but the inspiration for picasso's best-known work would not come from love but from tragedy on july the 18th 1936 the spanish civil war broke out the conflict opposed to the republican government was a military insurgency the bando nacional the officers were initially led by general san juajo and later by general franco who secured military help from fascist italy and nazi germany in 1937 the republican government asked picasso to paint a mural for the spanish pavilion at the paris universal exposition the painter chose the subject after hearing the news from guernica a republican stronghold in basque country in norman spain on april 26 1937 45 italian and german planes carpet bombed and strafed guenica they destroyed 70 of the town and killed or wounded 1 600 civilians which was a third of the population this was the first instance of large-scale bombing used against a civilian target an omen of the impending horrors of the near future the caso denounced the massacre by painting a monumental canvas 3.5 meters tall and 7.8 meters wide he painted quickly to meet the deadline of the exhibition dorima's photos documented the process providing some insight into how picasso changed his mind several times on the composition of the canvas even down to the choice of colors halfway through the process perhaps inspired by dora's own black and white photos the caso decided to adopt an almost monochromatic palette black dark blue and white another pseudo-improvised element is the head of the horse at the center of the canvas taken together with the bull on the left these animals represent the most dominant elements the horse represents the suffering of the people of guernica while the bull embodies brutality and darkness guernica helped to further cement picasso's reputation worldwide he was even honored with a large exhibition at new york's moma in 1939. when the german army occupied paris in june of 1940 picasso benefited in part from his international standing he was clearly an anti-fascist and producer of degenerate art but the occupational authorities allowed him to continue to work sometimes german officials would try to offer him extra privileges sometimes as simple as extra coal or food rations naturally they were expecting some works of art in exchange but picasso never accepted these exchanges all he ever gave these officials were postcards of guernica to be kept as a souvenir during the occupation years his work reflected the grim reality of the period in paintings like seated woman subject matter focused on the private introspective sphere the colors are dull the shapes aggressive the mood claustrophobic picasso also expressed himself through sculpture with the best example being man with a lamb which has been interpreted both as a symbol of suffering under german yoke and hope for impending liberation [Music] in may of 1943 picasso was ready for another transition in his personal life he met the young aspiring painter francois geller while still living with dora occasionally he still saw his former lover marie throughs walter he cut ties with both walter and dora in order ordered start a new relationship with gilo which would almost last 10 years the couple had two children clawed in 1947 and paloma in 1949 but their affair was plagued by infidelity and emotional abuse picasso explained very clearly to francois that for him there are only two kinds of women goddesses and doormats killer was not willing to become a doormat so she instead became the only woman to ever leave picasso in 1953. she later published a memoir on their life together revealing some of the artists neuroses and darker traits the castle alternated between bouts of depression uncontrollable temper and absolute sadism which he expressed in the form of cruel pranks he also had a tendency to ruminate obsessively on single ideas or topics and maintained compulsive rituals for example every morning he had to recite mentally a list of his closest friends one day he forgot to include his friend maurice ronald later in that day he learned of his unexpected death and was deeply perturbed this episode shows how as a balance to picasso's myriad of negative traits he could care deeply about others friends certain family members and the general downtrodden of society as a result of his relationship with guillot who was a communist sympathizer picasso shifted decidedly to the left in fact after the end of the german occupation he formerly joined the french communist party in the following years he painted party posters and a portrait of stalin he accepted the lenin peace prize in 1950 and attracted the attention of u.s authorities with massacring career this 1951 canvas was a commentary on u.s atrocities committed against north korean civilians eventually picasso came under fbi scrutiny who suspected him of spying on behalf of the ussr but politics were not the major concern of the maestro who was now in his 70s he had started yet another new relationship with the lady who had become his final love and muse jacqueline rock 47 years as junior the two would marry in 1961 and jacqueline would be portrayed more than 70 times by the aging painter marking by far the most productive years of his long career picasso had entered a period of frenzied activity dedicated to revisiting and recreating works by early masters that he admired starting in 1957 he produced 58 works in which he reinterpreted les menonus a 17th century masterpiece by diego de velaquez from 1959 to 1961 he applied the same approach to lunching on the grass by monet the series inspired by the impressionist consists of 140 drawings 27 paintings and had four linoleum cuts during the 1960s picasso's most recurring theme was the female nude it was as if approaching death the old master wanted to delay as much as possible the threats of decay and impotence such a vast amount of work required peace and quiet which pablo and jacqueline sought by moving to the secluded chateau de vovanagh in southern france while there jacqueline would make sure the master's time was protected barring even his eldest son paulo from visiting him in 1964 picasso himself extended the veto to his other children claude and paloma the reason was the publication of his former lover francois gilo's affirmation memoir life with picasso picasso sued his former lover and tried to prevent the publication of the work but the court involved concluded that this work far from defaming the great painter reveals him as a man of astonishing interior richness and an extremely attractive figure pablo ruiz picasso died on april the 8th 1973 age 91 jacqueline spent the night next to his body laid out on a mound of snow picasso was a colossus of the art world the personification of genius his life spanned nine decades and his vision influenced the creation of some of the most important movements in modern art the engine that propelled his work were his passions the lessons from the old masters politics society and most of all his muses and yet that same passionate heart that could create so easily and could elevate those around him could destroy just as easily olga pablo's first wife was abused and neglected while ill with cancer marie therese walter ultimately took her own life and so did jacqueline rock after years of alcoholism and depression dora ma was also abused eventually suffering a mental breakdown picasso seemed to have a deleterious influence on blood relatives too his son pablo died an alcoholic after years of depression paulo's son pablito poisoned himself with a bottle of bleach and he was barred from his grandfather's funeral so while the world rightfully remembers him as the master painter of the 20th century and the founder of cubism so too was he a lecherous eccentric slowly scraping the life off the many friends and family members in his orbit picasso's muses may have given him inspiration but that transaction rarely came without personal cost such was the nature of a complex artistic visionary as papalito's sister marina described it he submitted them to his animal sexuality tamed them bewitched them ingested them and crushed them into his canvas after he had spent many nights extracting their essence once they were bled dry he would dispose of them so i hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below don't forget to subscribe please do check it out fantastic sponsor manscape too i'm linking to below and thank you for watching you

Channel: Biographics

Views: 234,794

Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler

Id: ctbhYCGfQyY

Length: 26min 39sec (1599 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 30 2021