Pablo Picasso was born in the early 1880s into a family with artistic roots. From this, he was able to draw much inspiration and opportunities to study in a well reputed art schools, which were located in Barcelona and Madrid. At the beginning, he did not have a definite direction in relation to his style; hence, experimented on a lot of techniques and forms. He joined a number of other young artists, authors and architects that took the direction of contemporary art in their work. The formative years of his career ended in 1901 (Fandel, & Picasso, 2006). He continued depicting issues in the society but leaving out some aspects of it in his art. His art not only influenced other artists and ...view middle of the document...
In 1899, Pablo dropped his scholarly studies and joined a group of young artists. The group brought together a number of writers and artists well known as modernistes (Klein, 2010). Their art assimilated modern trends in art like symbolism. It also evoked the mood and atmosphere rather than the traditional literal description. With regard to poster design, graphic arts and illustration, their art followed the art nouveau from French, which was characterized by artificial colors, twisting contour lines and simplified shapes (Fandel & Picasso, 2006). By the early 1900s, Pablo and his colleagues’ art had moved further to place emphasis on social causes and political anarchy. For instance, his work showed sympathy for the poor in the urban areas like Barcelona and Paris. The artist as well as most of his colleagues settled in Paris where their works were displayed in salons and galleries (Art in Action, n.d).
Pablo’s personal style was a combination of several techniques and styles that he had previously drawn influences from. For instance, it introduced bright and pure colors with one of the major subjects being scenes of the nightlife in Paris and an image of Manach Pere, one of his greatest promoters. One of the greatest financial successes of the artist was the exhibition at Ambroise Volard’s gallery (Fandel & Picasso, 2006). Upon the death of his close friend Casagemas, Pablo’s themes in his illustration took another direction especially with the exclusive use of blue shades, which was not popular in Spain or French and was mostly associated with despair and sadness.
Furthermore, his style metaphorically removed the worldly fate of the subjects and instead handed them an imaginary state of grace (National Gallery of Art, 1997). For instance, he depicted the sex workers and their children while in prison at Saint-Lazare in the French capital...
