On April 8, 1973, France, Mouran, Picasso and his wife Jacqueline (left) entertain friends at a party. It was at this party that Picasso died
On April 8, 1973, Picasso and his wife were entertaining friends at a party, and he said, "Toast to me, toast to my health, you know I can't drink anymore." This became his last words. 40 years later, his talent still shines in the world, and his flow and legendary life are still loved by the world
Picasso died on April 8, 1973, at the age of 92.
He once wrote in his self-portrait: "I am the king." Indeed, he never lost his self-confidence, both artistically and in women. Even after 40 years of his death, Picasso is still the "emperor" of today's art market, and the most recent record appeared last month, when The American hedge fund industry tycoon Steve Cohen bought Picasso's famous painting "Dream" from gambling king Steve Wen, which sold for $155 million, which is a well-deserved "top spot" in the jianghu.
Unlike the impoverished Van Gogh, Picasso's life was so brilliant that he was the first painter ever to live to see his work collected in the Louvre. "Every painting I have my blood in it, that's what my paintings mean."
In 1905, the 26-year-old Einstein constructed special relativity, which triggered a scientific revolution in the field of time; in 1907, the 26-year-old Picasso created "The Avignon Girl", and the Cubist school detonated an artistic revolution in space.
Artistic success brought him wealth. In 1909, Picasso had hired maids in aprons and turbans to wait at the table; in 1919 he moved into a large apartment in the highest part of Paris; in 1930 he had all the things a "successful" artist could show off: the magnanimous Hispano-Suiza sedan, the driver in uniform and white gloves, the haute couture of the famous masters, the good breed dogs, the lavish duplex houses; the castles of the south of France that he bought for the price of a still life painting; the safe; and the young and beautiful woman... Picasso could receive "all the magnates of Paris" in his luxurious living room.
Picasso is a living legend, known worldwide for his works in his fifties. He is an idol worshipped by people, representing a certain way of life: sunbathing, holding a Gallic cigarette in his hand, and his eyes are sparkling and charming.
He led the way: before Picasso, the French Riviera was famous for its winter resorts, but in the 20th century, when the year was at its hottest, Picasso often spent holidays with friends, and suddenly, going to the south of France in the summer became a fashion and is still popular today.
In 1950, Picasso began wearing the striped sailor suit of the French Bridonians, and striped tops quickly became fashionable, followed by Andy Warhol and Jean-Paul Gaultier, who wore striped tops, and Warhol, who wore striped tops, wanted to look like an "art icon": "Know who I look like?" I'm like Picasso. ”
Some say that Picasso's talent was like a comet that illuminated the entire 20th century; in fact, Picasso's brand has never been left behind, and even his unique signature has been introduced into the hotel logo: look at the words Radisso today, which is the same as Picasso's signature; Citroën named their family van "Picasso". It's a family car, but Picasso is not a stay-at-home man.
Picasso had two marriages throughout his life and had at least 5 lovers, two of whom committed suicide after his death.
Picasso, 1954
At the age of 70, Picasso still maintained close relationships with many young women, and Sylvette David, a 19-year-old female model at the time, recalled, "I was surprised that he wanted me to be his model the first time he met me, but the opportunity was in front of me: a chance to contact Picasso... He showed me around the studio, it was a small house with a bed and a window, he was 73 and agile and jumped on the bed like a little kid, he definitely wanted me to jump into bed like he did, but I didn't, I thought, oh, I'd better stay in the doorway and see what's going on... He got out of bed and understood that I didn't want to play games with him, I didn't want him to say, 'Take off your clothes and pose me naked', that's not okay!' ”
Soon, movie star Brigitte Bardot became a hit for "God Created Women", and her wild blonde style reference is Svet. After becoming famous, Bardot visited Picasso in 1956 and specially tied a ponytail and dressed up as a beautiful blonde beauty, "I very much hoped that Picasso could paint me, but he only painted Svet." ”
In 1953, Picasso, in his seventies, met Jacqueline Roque and married her in 1961. Jacqueline accompanied him through the last days of his life, and in his later years, Picasso also painted a large number of works on the theme of love. One day, 13 years after Picasso's death, Jacqueline shot herself at his photograph. The love-hate relationship between Picasso and his lovers has always been the source of inspiration for his creations, and even influenced the development and change of his painting style.
In 1956, in Valori, France, Picasso and his friend Jean Coctor were kissed by a beautiful woman wearing a bikini while watching a bullfight
<h3>"Matador" and "Melancholy Blue"</h3>
Picasso's photograph when he was 7 years old: prominent eyes, already with a sense of authority.
This pair of "black eyes like coal essence" appeared many times in people's memories, "dark, deep, sharp, strange, focused", "charming tan, full and intense", "black diamond".
His good friend, the French photographer Brasai, took a portrait of him in 1932, "Picasso is like a boulder that has accumulated all its strength and condensed all the years." And everything in the picture is centered on the fiery gaze, which penetrates your heart, conquers you, devours you..." Picasso said, "If I were not a painter, then I would be a matador." ”
He revered the matador so much that the matador became his first subject— he was only 8 years old.
Picasso's real name is Pablo Ruiz, and Ruiz is his father's surname, but he always signs his mother's surname on the paintings. After becoming famous, he always asked people: Can you imagine if my name was Ruiz?
Ruiz is a very common surname in Spain, and Picasso begins with "Pica", which is very attractive to the young Pablo: "picador" originally referred to the jockey who stabbed the bull with a spear on the bullring, the word comes from the Spanish "picar", has the meaning of "irritation and provocation", it can be said that this is exactly the interpretation of his life.
Picasso was born in 1881 in Malaga, southern Spain. When he fell to the ground, his breath was dying and his life was not safe, and the midwife doctor, despite his family's objections, sprayed cigar smoke into the baby's nostrils, and the baby survived and lived to be 92 years old.
Picasso was a gifted child and has always been a genius. It is said that he was able to draw before he learned to speak. The first word he learned was the Spanish word "pencil." At the age of 10, he was able to draw plaster pixels as well as all art teachers. His father, who was also an art teacher, was so shocked by his son's talent for painting that when Picasso was under 14, he handed over his brush and palette and vowed never to paint again, because his son was out of the blue.
At the age of 16, Picasso entered Madrid's prestigious Royal Academy of Arts, where he was able to perfectly imitate the work of Velázquez, a teenager who was placed on the right side of Velázquez and celebrated as a fiery phoenix genius.
The young Picasso had touched on the true meaning of painting, but he disliked the environment of art school, and after a year he took a break from school to return to Barcelona, where he became infected with bohemian art and met Carlos Casagemas, the two became friends, and went to Paris together in 1900, when he was 19 years old.
Paris was a mecca for the literary youth of all countries and the capital of evil in Europe, with hundreds of brothels where painters, poets, anarchists, and vagrants were depressed in absinthe, and Picasso and Casa Gimus soon joined the gang. At that time, Casa Gimas fell in love with a girl named Jeman, but was refused, so he had to borrow wine to pour sorrow.
One night in 1901, Casa Guimas suddenly decided to leave Paris, and he invited Germain and a large group of friends to a farewell dinner in a small café. After a few bottles of wine, Casa Gimas suddenly stood up, took a pistol from his arms, and fired a shot at Germain. Fortunately, she had a premonition and quickly threw herself down, the bullet only grazing her neck. The next scene shocked everyone, and Casa Gimas turned the muzzle of the gun on his temple and pulled the trigger.
The death of his friend devastated Picasso, and grief soaked into his art. In the following years, Casa Gimas continued to appear in Picasso's paintings, and he never used blue, and his wanderings were lonely and desperate, as if this was the only color he could see, and the pain of this period created his first style, the "Blue (Melancholy) Era", which depicted mostly marginal people such as prostitutes, beggars, and drunks. In fact, the series was not popular at the time, but by the end of the 1980s it was highly sought after in the market, with the British art historian John Berg arguing: "Works of this period often became the favorite of the rich because of their sentimental depictions of the poor." ”
The Avignon Girls
<h3>"The Peach Age" and "The Avignon Girl"</h3>
Picasso's period of melancholy lasted 3 years. After that, he found a new home in the gypsy neighborhood of Paris and gradually came out of the haze in the lovely Montmartre district. In 1904, Picasso rented a studio for 15 francs a month, the area was named "Laundry" because there was always drying clothes, and it was said that the living environment there was dirty at that time, there was only one toilet in the whole neighborhood, and there was only one tap next to it, which was used by 30 studios, but Picasso liked the place.
Here, he found a permanent friendship and also found love.
Before making a breakthrough in art, Picasso first had a breakthrough in love. A girl named Fernande Olivier inspired a change in his style: he switched from melancholy blue to sweet pink, also known as the "Peach Age", during which Picasso created some valuable works, such as the 1905 boy with a pipe: a vivid boy with a small pipe and a garland on his head. In 2004, the painting fetched a whopping $104.2 million, setting a new record for $82.5 million in Van Gogh's Portrait of Dr. Gachet in 1990, and appreciating 3,472 times more than the $30,000 selling price of Picasso's creation in the year of his creation.
Picasso of the "Peach Age", in addition to using his lover Fernand as a painting object, also found other materials: circus clowns. Picasso was very fond of circus performances, and every time he had money, he would find friends to eat with and take them to the circus, he hated dramas and almost never went to the theater. "I was enchanted by the circus performance! I used to watch circus for several consecutive nights in a week. I especially like clowns. We chatted at the bar backstage and it was an evening.
Some people say that Picasso's first dealer was the clown of the Circus of Metarano, and Picasso responded: "He is a thrift merchant who also sells some paintings." However, before making a cameo appearance as a 'dealer', he was first and foremost a real clown. Picasso's work at this stage later became popular with collectors, which also helped him out of poverty.
But Picasso did not stop, and soon he changed again, his interest shifting from circus to nude painting. Picasso's brush created an atmosphere almost like a classical myth: people didn't know where it was, where the naked boy was going, or why he was holding the horse listlessly.
But it was still traditional, and a year later he had a bunch of broken glass splicing toys: 1907's The Avignon Maiden. It is a group of hideous, angular naked prostitutes, permeated with a frenzied emotion, even evil energy, transmitting a smelly, naked carnal desire. This is the most revolutionary work of the 26-year-old Picasso, who pioneered Cubism and has since revolutionized the direction of 20th-century art.
According to his artistic claims, when he visited the Louvre in 1906, he was attracted by some ancient Spanish statues, heavy protruding eye sockets, oversized and bulky ears, which provided him with a new and exciting way to interpret the world, and later he became fascinated by African masks, and the original power contained in the rough cracks in tribal artwork caught him at once. Inspired by the fact that he shut himself in the studio for months, abandoning 600 years of elegant art style, and finally making this work, "The Girl of Avignon" completely overturned Picasso's past life, which is the cornerstone of Picasso's future reputation.
In 1912, Picasso's relationship with Fernand ended marked by his cohabitation with his new girlfriend, Eva. Eva was the only woman among his many public lovers who did not leave a large number of portraits, and at that time Picasso had entered the period of analytical Cubism, and he superstitiously believed that it was unlucky to portray his lover in such a fragmented way, so he only named these works "I Love Eva", but nevertheless, Eva died of illness. Fernand was Picasso's first lover, who later published the book "Picasso and His Friends", and her later years were very poor, although she had such a world-renowned ex-boyfriend, she still had to make a living by teaching foreigners French.
In 1919, Picasso and his wife Olga
<h3>"Goddess" and "Broken Door Mat"</h3>
From the age of 28, Picasso can not worry about money.
In 1912, when he was painting on a white wall in Provence, his agent thought it was worth tearing down the wall and sent the entire painting to Paris intact, where he asked experts to reframe it on wooden panels.
This year, he wrapped fabrics, newspapers, etc. around canvases, using collage patterns as art for the first time; then he worked non-stop to create sculptures from everyday materials and metal scrap: a vermouth wine glass embedded with a real spoon.
He used all means to achieve artistic results, such as a bronze sculpture of a sheep, made of clay, pasted with wood chips around the neck, a jar under the navel, turned into a copper sculpture, and then became a realistic texture of the ewe with full breasts. There are also well-known bicycle saddles with a cow's head and a female bust made by a six-stringed piano. Picasso became famous for his conquest of artistic traditions and the reuse of other artists' themes, with Matisse calling him a "robber".
The outbreak of World War I interrupted Picasso's three-dimensional experiments. During the war, he fell in love with ballet master Olga Khokhlova, a descendant of a Russian nobleman. The two married in 1918 and later gave birth to a son, Paul. Picasso's Cubist art made him a lot of money, and Olga was a sociable person, and soon they entered the high society of Paris.
Fonsvar Giraud and Picasso's son Claude, holding in her hand a portrait of Picasso's son
During this period, his painting style was quite neoclassical: beautiful, realistic, traditional, and the conformist upper class life was what Olga longed for, but after a few years of marriage, Picasso felt bound under the control of his wife, and he finally exploded in art.
In the spring of 1925, while Olga was practicing ballet, Picasso painted a series of beautiful but orthodox works for dancers, but soon he received bad news: his friend Ramon Pichot had died! This brought him back to his past state of unruliness, and the result was an unprecedented madness of "Three Dancers": intense colors, a twisted body like a nightmare, he said that the shadow was Pichot, which should be called "Pichot's Death", and the dancer in the middle was considered to be some kind of torture and torture of his wife, which was not a beautiful image of his wife, she had many faces: at another angle, the previous eye became a grinning mouth, almost like a rough cartoon, and the huge gap between the teeth could be seen.
Olga forbade Picasso to paint herself as a "man is not like a man", so Picasso maintained the image of a beautiful woman (even a fat beauty) until 1935, when the two separated, Picasso finally painted her a "monster": sometimes like a wild horse, sometimes simply a violent shrew. In fact, Picasso's work from this period is almost always related to marital problems, and since meeting his lover Marie Therese Walter in 1927, Picasso's relationship with his wife Olga has become increasingly strained, and he pours out this tension, infatuation, and anger on the canvas.
Picasso admitted that he divided women into two categories: "goddesses" and "door-breaking mats", but in fact, he was keen on pioneering sexual desires to conquer women and destroy them, and in the end almost every woman fell from the "goddess" who inspired him to the poor "door-breaking mat". After meeting the new dora Maar, Walter quickly becomes the image of the murder in his pen: her naked body is carried by two, one of whom has Dora's black curly hair...
In 1936, the Spanish Civil War broke out, Picasso met Dora in the interaction with the surreal group, and the young and naïve Therese, Dora is considered to be the best among the literary and artistic young women, when she met Picasso, she was already a well-known painter and photographer, it was in her company, Picasso completed the masterpiece "Guernica" (1937), Dora used the camera to record the whole process of the creation of the work. Although Dora and Picasso walked through the flames of the Spanish Civil War and World War II, they still could not change the bad luck of the breakup, and in 1943, the two parted ways due to the appearance of Francoise Gilot, and the abandoned Dora was once insane.
After about a decade of living with Picasso, Foncephar seemed to foresee the fate of being destroyed like the other women, leaving with two children, the only woman to leave Picasso voluntarily. In 1964, In his book Living with Picasso, Fonceau recalled that Picasso "loved neither his wife nor his children, he loved only one thing—his paintings."
Nudes, Green Leaves and Busts
<h3>The most "expensive" lover</h3>
According to statistics, of the 40 most expensive paintings in the world, Picasso alone owns 10 paintings, and the other 30 paintings are divided by 20 artists. On February 3, 2010, the world auction record for "The Boy with the Pipe" held for six years was broken by a sculpture by Giacometti, but only three months later, on May 4, Picasso's other work, Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, was auctioned at Christie's for $106.5 million, once again collecting the world auction record for the artwork.
Among the "masters" of the proud auction houses, Picasso's "throne" consists of several factors: he is one of the most famous and important artists since the Impressionists, sought after academically and in the market; his artistic output is extremely rich, leaving behind more than 30,000 works of art in his lifetime; his creations change with style over time, but always maintain a high standard. In 2007, his work ranked second in Artprice's list of world artists, with a total annual turnover of $319 million, and in 2008, he ranked first at Artprice with a total of $262 million.
"Dreams"
Nudes, Green Leaves and Busts, painted in 1932, was based on Picasso's lover Walter, who was very popular in the market. Back in 1997, the portrait "Dream" sold for $48.4 million at Christie's in New York. The erotic connotations of the painting are constantly mentioned: the 50-year-old Picasso painted the sleeping position of 24-year-old Walter, and some critics have pointed out that Picasso painted an erect penis on the model's face, most likely representing himself. Another portrait of Walter, Rest, was sold at Christie's in New York for $34.7 million in 2006. On 5 February this year, the portrait "Woman by the Window", which is also based on her, was highlighted at Sotheby's "Impressionist, Modern and Surrealist Art Auction" in London, with a high price of 28.6 million pounds.
In Picasso's work, compared to the gentle, pure, and sexy Walter, the subsequent lover Dora is disturbing, neurotic, and painful. Today, at art auctions, Picasso's lovers occasionally "meet", and sometimes even estimates are similar, on June 21, 2011, Picasso's three paintings for three lovers were sold for a high price of 42 million pounds at Christie's in London, and the lost faces in the paintings vaguely tell the joy and sorrow between them and a generation of masters. It is impossible to know which Picasso prefers, but buyers have the opportunity to express their preferences with their money bags.
However, the most "expensive" lover on the market is also the most lamentable fate among the many women in Picasso's collection.
Picasso and Walter met in 1927 and were his "underground lover" until he and his wife Olga officially separated in 1935. Picasso painted numerous portraits of her, and his Walter, though strange, retained one basic feature: her fair skin and long, blond hair. Picasso was in her forties when he had an affair with her, and she was only 17. Their relationship lasted for about a decade, and the portraits Picasso painted for her were a collection of classic elements that were typical of Picasso's style. In the painting, Picasso does not want to show us her beauty, he deliberately distorts her appearance and chooses colors that represent his feelings, trying to capture her inner emotions, personality and essence.
In September 1935, Walter gave birth to Picasso's daughter Maya, and four months later, Picasso met the new dora and quickly cohabited with her, and Walter, who had just shed his identity as an "underground lover", suddenly became an "ex-girlfriend" and "child her mother". On October 20, 1977, four years after Picasso's death, Walter, 68, hanged himself. It was the 50th anniversary of her and Picasso's acquaintance.
Guernica
<h3>Comrade Picasso's "War" and "Peace"</h3>
"Is this your masterpiece?" When I first saw Guernica, a fascist leader asked a question.
Without fear, Picasso rebuked, "No, this is your 'masterpiece'!" ”
In April 1937, a Luftwaffist Air Force unit flattened the communist town of Guernica, dropping 5,000 bombs and killing 1,600 people, the first time Europe had suffered such a brutal atrocity. When Picasso heard about this, his anger inspired his desire to create, and in just 6 weeks he completed a huge painting of 30 square meters: "Guernica". This is not only the most important work of his life, but also the most important work of the 20th century.
It has been said that Picasso compressed the suffering of the entire 20th century into this painting: the devastation of flesh and blood seemed to take place right before her eyes, the jagged flash of light bulbs, like a bomb exploding; on the left side of the painting, a mother holding her dead child and looking at her face: nostrils and eyes flowing down like tears, that spike-like tongue, as if you could hear her grief-stricken screams, evoking the most primitive cries of people's hearts, the terrifying trembling.
Guernica was originally exhibited in the Spanish Pavilion at the 1937 French World Exposition, an exhibition showcasing the industry, culture and art of various countries, but Picasso's cry for peace was completely ignored. Because the whole affair was deliberately obscured by two hostile camps, Nazi Germany on one side and the Soviet Union on the other. Guernica then became famous, and as the world slowed towards World War II, the painting was taken on a world tour to support Spain's anti-fascist struggle.
When the world fell into war, the painting was seen as a symbol of anti-war, and it was toured more than fifty times before being returned to Madrid. If you look closely, you will find that there are many damages on the painting, which have been exhibited from one museum to another over the years, and each time it has been rolled up and taken away, and there is a 5 mm hole in the eyes of the soldiers below the picture, which can also be said to be a memorial left by the anti-war process of Guernica.
Now, when there are anti-war protests, you can see Guernica appear on banners and posters. In 2003, when Powell was holding a press conference to start the iraq war, it was noticed that the replica of Guernica, which was made of carpet weaving, was covered with a blue curtain because it was a constant reminder of the horrific massacre of innocents in war.
During World War II, when the Germans occupied Paris, Picasso stayed in his small studio, and many of his friends joined the communist camp. After the liberation of Paris, Picasso joined the French Communist Party, and he remained a loyal Communist for the rest of his life, which seemed incompatible with his status as a monopoly, but he enjoyed it.
In 1949, Picasso light-painted with a flashlight
He became a communist propagandist and often attended congresses. His "peace dove", which was used at the 1949 World Peace Congress, was famously derived from a dove that was originally a gift from Picasso's friend-and-foe rival Matisse. "To draw a peace dove, you first have to break its neck." Picasso wanted to immortalize the bird with a flat painting, and his party friends quickly picked it out, and today the dove has become a universal symbol of peace.
(Source: Southern People Weekly)