Welcome to the virtual portion of our KCU/Carter County Public Library Summer Reading Program 2025! This week we will begin to explore the art of Spanish artist Pablo Picasso.
Picasso in 1962
Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theatre designer. He was born in 1881 and died in April 1973. Even though he was born in Spain, he spent most of his adult life in France. He was most famous for co-founding the cubist movement and for co-inventing collage.
Picasso was a prolific artist. That means he produced many pieces of artwork! He also produced many different types of art. When he died there were more than 45,000 unsold works that he still owned. There were 1,885 paintings, 1,228 sculptures, 3,222 ceramics, 7,089 drawings, 150 sketch books, and many thousands of prints, tapestries, and rugs. He was one of the best known artists in the 20th century.
Picasso experimented with many styles and types of art. You will often hear people refer to his "periods". He would focus on a particular aspect such as color and create art emphasizing that element for a few years. This happened particularly when he was younger. Here is a list of the periods that you may have heard of:
Click on any of the periods above to see an example of the type of paintings that he did and how it changed with each time period!
Picasso was in Paris, France during World War II while the Germans occupied the city. The Nazis did not like his style of art so he did not exhibit his works during that time period. He was often harassed by the Gestapo.
Picasso used color as an element of his painting, but he relied on drawing to create form and space. This became obvious in his cubism works. He also painted mostly from imagination and memory.
Let's get started learning more about of the art of Picasso!
From Wikipedia - Pablo Picasso - Wikipedia
