DECONSTRUCTING PICASSO

STROKES OF GENIUS

From his early childhood years sketching in

the dirt to his final hours at age 91, Pablo

Picasso was devoted to mastering his deeply

personal art. He’s considered one of the most

influential artists of the 20th century, and his

work continues to be studied for its meaning

and celebrated for its creativity. His subject

matter and style, inspired by his many lovers

and by other artists, were ever changing.

Picasso’s work is loosely divided here into

14 distinct phases, coupled with the

artist’s own words.

MASTER OF MANY FORMS

Picasso is most famous for his thousands

of paintings, but he also created other

types of art, including costume design

and ballet sets.

28,743 CATALOGUED ARTWORKS

Drawings

Paintings

Engravings

Ceramics

Uncategorized

Watercolours

Lithographs

Guaches

Sculptures

Pastels

Collages

Photographs

12,916

4,530

3,194

1,685

1,660

1,039

992

864

843

363

333

324

 “When I was a child, my mother said

to me, ‘If you become a soldier, you’ll

be a general. If you become a monk,

you’ll end up as the pope!’ Instead, I

became a painter and wound up

as Picasso.”

SCIENCE ET CHARITÉ (1897)

“I am not in favor of following any

determined school because that

only brings about similarity among

adherents.”

LE MOULIN DE LA GALETTE (1900)

“I just painted the images that

rose before my eyes. It is for other

people to find hidden meanings

in them.”

LA VIE (1903)

 “When it is finished, [a picture] still

goes on changing, according to the

state of mind of whoever is looking

at it. A picture lives a life like a living

creature, undergoing the changes

imposed on us by our life from day

to day. This is natural enough, as the

picture lives only through the man

who is looking at it.”

LA FAMILLE DE SALTIMBANQUES

(LES BATELEURS) (1905)

“I never do a painting as a work of

art. All of them are researches. I

search incessantly, and there is a

logical sequence in all this research.”

AUTOPORTRAIT À LA

PALETTE (1906)

“Painting isn’t an aesthetic oper-

ation; it’s a form of magic designed

as a mediator between this strange,

hostile world and us, a way of seeing

power by giving form to our terrors

as well as to our desires.”

LES DEMOISELLES

D’AVIGNON (1907)

“A picture used to be a sum of

additions. With me, a picture is

a sum of destructions.”

PORTRAIT D’AMBROISE

VOLLARD (1910)

“I have never made trials or exper-

iments … Whenever I had something

to say, I have said it in the manner in

which I have felt it ought to be said.

Different motives invariably require

different methods of expression.”

NATURE MORTE À LA CHAISE CANNÉE (1912)

“In my opinion, to search means

nothing in painting. To find is

the thing.”

LA FLÛTE DE PAN (1923)

“I have reached the stage where

the movement of my thought

interests me more than the

thought itself.”

LES TROIS DANSEUSES

(LA DANSE) (1925)

 “Artists who live and work with spiritual values

cannot and should not remain indifferent to a

conflict in which the highest values of humanity

and civilisation are at stake.”

GUERNICA (1937)

“A work of art must not be some-

thing that leaves a man unmoved,

something he passes by with a

casual glance. It has to make him

react, feel strongly, start creating

too, if only in his imagination.”

NATURE MORTE AU

CRÂNE DE BOEUF (1942)

“Me, I always seek a likeness … A

painter must observe nature but

never confuse it with painting. It

can only be translated into

painting through signs.”

PAYSAGE MÉDITERRANÉEN (1952)

When asked what his favourite

period of his career was, Picasso

answered: “The next one.”

TÊTE (AUTO­PORTRAIT)

(1972)

RYAN MORRIS, EVE CONANT, AND SOREN WALLJAS-

PER NGM STAFF; ENRIQUE MALLÉN, ONLINE PICASSO

PROJECT; PATRICIA HEALY. SOURCE: ONLINE

PICASSO PROJECT

DECONSTRUCTING PICASSO

STROKES OF GENIUS

From his early childhood years sketching in the dirt to his final hours at age 91, Pablo

Picasso was devoted to mastering his deeply personal art. He’s considered one of

the most influential artists of the 20th century, and his work continues to be studied

for its meaning and celebrated for its creativity. His subject matter and style, inspired

by his many lovers and by other artists, were ever changing. Picasso’s work is loosely

divided here into 14 distinct phases, coupled with the artist’s own words.

MASTER OF MANY FORMS

28,743 CATALOGUED ARTWORKS

Drawings

Paintings

Engravings

Ceramics

Uncategorized

Watercolours

Lithographs

Guaches

Sculptures

Pastels

Collages

Photographs

12,916

4,530

3,194

1,685

1,660

Picasso is most famous for his

thousands of paintings, but he

also created other types of art,

including costume design

and ballet sets.

1,039

 “When I was a child, my mother said

to me, ‘If you become a soldier, you’ll

be a general. If you become a monk,

you’ll end up as the pope!’ Instead, I

became a painter and wound up

as Picasso.”

992

864

843

363

333

324

“I am not in favor of following any

determined school because that

only brings about similarity among

adherents.”

NUMBER OF ARTWORKS,

BY QUARTER YEAR

HIS LIFE, LOVERS,

AND MUSES

1890

Marriage

Lover

Child

Relationship

CREATIVE

PERIOD

AGE

8

Rabbits, bullfights,

and a full-length fig-

ure of Hercules are

shown in his earliest

drawings.

“I just painted the images that

rose before my eyes. It is for other

people to find hidden meanings

in them.”

Picasso immerses himself in Barcelona’s

bohemian scene, where he makes

the acquaintance of some of his best

friends at Els Quatre Gats café.

1895

13

 “When it is finished, [a picture] still

goes on changing, according to the

state of mind of whoever is looking

at it. A picture lives a life like a living

creature, undergoing the changes

imposed on us by our life from day

to day. This is natural enough, as the

picture lives only through the man

who is looking at it.”

314

1900

Odette

18

Fernande

Olivier

Madeleine

1905

398

23

“I never do a painting as a work of

art. All of them are researches. I

search incessantly, and there is a

logical sequence in all this research.”

1910

28

Eva Gouel

Lover Eva Gouel falls

ill and dies.

“Painting isn’t an aesthetic oper-

ation; it’s a form of magic designed

as a mediator between this strange,

hostile world and us, a way of seeing

power by giving form to our terrors

as well as to our desires.”

Gaby

Depeyre

1915

33

Olga

Khokhlova

Irène

Lagut

1920

38

Paulo

“A picture used to be a sum of

additions. With me, a picture is

a sum of destructions.”

Picasso engraves dozens of

works to illustrate the book

Les Métamorphoses of Ovid

and the famous Suite Vollard,

commissioned by art dealer

Ambroise Vollard.

1925

43

Marie-

Thérèse

Walter

“I have never made trials or exper-

iments … Whenever I had something

to say, I have said it in the manner in

which I have felt it ought to be said.

Different motives invariably require

different methods of expression.”

Khokhlova

and Picasso

were separ-

ated after

1935 but

remained

married until

her death

in 1955.

1930

48

294

“In my opinion, to search means

nothing in painting. To find is

the thing.”

1935

Maya

53

Dora Maar

1940

58

“I have reached the stage where

the movement of my thought

interests me more than the

thought itself.”

Françoise

Gilot

1945

63

Claude

Paloma

1950

Picasso starts a series of

drawings on the theme

of “painter and model.”

He completes 180 works

by February 1954.

68

Geneviève

Laporte

 “Artists who live and work with spiritual values

cannot and should not remain indifferent to a

conflict in which the highest values of humanity

and civilisation are at stake.”

1955

73

Sylvette David, a young

woman who was never

linked to him romantically,

inspired one of his most

prolific series (65 pieces

in different mediums).

“A work of art must not be some-

thing that leaves a man unmoved,

something he passes by with a

casual glance. It has to make him

react, feel strongly, start creating

too, if only in his imagination.”

1960

78

Jacqueline

Roque

266

1965

83

“Me, I always seek a likeness … A

painter must observe nature but

never confuse it with painting. It

can only be translated into

painting through signs.”

1970

88

When asked what his favourite

period of his career was, Picasso

answered: “The next one.”

Picasso spends a considerable

amount of time making engravings

for two famous series, Suite 347

and Suite 156.

1973

91

ARTWORKS:

1. SCIENCE ET CHARITÉ (1897)

2. LE MOULIN DE LA GALETTE (1900)

3. LA VIE (1903)

4. LA FAMILLE DE SALTIMBANQUES (LES BATELEURS)

(1905)

5. AUTOPORTRAIT À LA PALETTE (1906)

6. LES DEMOISELLES D’AVIGNON (1907)

7. PORTRAIT D’AMBROISE VOLLARD (1910)

8. NATURE MORTE À LA CHAISE CANNÉE (1912)

9. LA FLÛTE DE PAN (1923)

10. LES TROIS DANSEUSES (LA DANSE) (1925)

11. GUERNICA (1937)

12. NATURE MORTE AU CRÂNE DE BOEUF (1942)

13. PAYSAGE MÉDITERRANÉEN (1952)

14. TÊTE (AUTO­PORTRAIT) (1972)

RYAN MORRIS, EVE CONANT, AND SOREN WALLJASPER,

NGM STAFF; ENRIQUE MALLÉN, ONLINE PICASSO PROJECT;

PATRICIA HEALY. SOURCE: ONLINE PICASSO PROJECT

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