Despite spending only a single year on formal training at the Royal Academy in Madrid, Pablo Picasso became the world's most prolific painter in recorded history. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, Picasso composed over 100,000 print and engravings, 13,500 paintings, 300 sculptures, tens of thousands of book illustrations, tapestries, handheld drawings, and even poetry. Known as one of the fathers of Cubism and as a vigorous worker, Picasso captured the sentiments and romances of his era with an unusual alacrity. His long life--he died at the age of 91--and his deep convictions made him an iconic figure. During his early career, he became famous for his Blue Period paintings, which expressed deep pathos and depicted the underclass of society, such as prostitutes and beggars. Perhaps Picasso's most well-known work is a painting of the Spanish city of Guernica under siege by the Germans. For decades, this work was displayed in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. Picasso stipulated that the painting should not be returned to Spain until democracy was restored in that country. Following the emergence of Spanish Republicanism, Guernica was finally returned to its country of origin and exhibited at the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid. Picasso had a unique intuition for how to connote images with just a few strokes. He also had the ability to create extremely realistic portraits and depictions of the world. He was facile as a pastel painter, a pencil artist, an ink artist, a sculptor, and a poet. Estimates suggest that the modern value of Picasso's collected works is in excess of one billion dollars. |
