Born on October 25 in Málaga, Spain. As the son of an academic painter, José Ruiz Blasco, he begins to draw at an early age. Exhibits his first paintings at the age of 12.
1895
The family moves to Barcelona. Picasso studies there at La Lonja, the academy of fine arts.
1897
The family moves to Madrid. Picasso enters the Royal Academy of San Fernando but increasingly spends his time recording life around him. Visits the Prado where he discovers Spanish painting like Velazquez and Goya who capture his imagination at different times during his career.
1898-99
Picasso is associated with the group of Catalan artists and writers at the café 'Els Quatre Gats' which are crucial to his early artistic development.
1900
First exhibition in Barcelona. First of several stays in Paris.
1901-04
With his 'Blue Period' Picasso receives serious attention in the French press. Painted in cool blue and gray tones, the works reflect a somber and distressed view of life as he experiences it in the Barcelona street people – blind or lonely beggars and castaways – and in the Women's Prison of Saint Lazare in Paris which provide him free models.
1904
Permanently settles in Paris. His circle of friends soon includes Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Gertrude and Leo Stein and his two dealers, Ambroise Vollard and Berthe Weill. Fernande Olivier becomes his mistress. Her presence inspires many works during the years leading up to Cubism. Although he never lives in Spain again, Picasso's earliest experiences, his family and his culture remain a creative force in his art until his death.
1904-06
In the 'Rose Period' the color lightens. The tones of the Blue Period are replaced by those of pottery, of flesh, and of the earth itself. Picasso paints images of circus figures such as the jester, the acrobat, and the harlequin. The rootless wandering performers become a kind of evocation of the artist's position in modern society.
1907
Paints 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'. His violent treatment of the female body and masklike painting of the faces, influenced by a study of African art, make this work controversial. Yet the work is firmly based upon art-historical tradition: a renewed interest in El Greco contributes to the fracturing of the space and the gestures of the figures, while the overall composition owed much to Paul Cézanne's 'Bathers'.
1908
African-influenced striations and masklike heads are superseded by a technique that incorporates elements that Picasso and his new friend George Braque – whom he teamed up with by 1906 – found in the work of Cézanne. Still lifes become an important subject for the first time in Picasso's career.
1908-12
Picasso and Braque worke closely together, developing a more conceptual and theoretical pursuit that marks the beginnings of Cubism, the so-called 'Analytical Cubism'. Cubist paintings, drawings and sculpture focus less on a romantic notion of expression than on an investigation of the structure of a painting or its formal properties. Early Cubist paintings are often misunderstood by critics and viewers because they are thought to be merely geometric art. Yet the painters themselves believe they are presenting a new kind of reality that breaks away from Renaissance tradition, especially from the use of perspective and illusion. For example, they show multiple views of an object on the same canvas to convey more information than could be contained in a single, limited illusionistic view.
1912-14
Picasso and Braque glue paper and other materials onto their canvases, taking a stage further the Cubist conception of a work as a self-contained, constructed object. This phase of 'Synthetic Cubism' sees the reintroduction of color, while the actual materials often have an industrial reference (e.g. sand or printed wallpaper). Still lifes and, occasionally, heads are the principal subjects for both artists. In Picasso's works the multiple references inherent in his Synthetic compositions – curves that refer to guitars and at the same time to ears, for instance – introduce an element of play that is characteristic of much of his work and lead to the suggestion that one thing becomes transformed into another.
1914-17
During World War I, Picasso stays in Paris, while fellow artists such as Braque, Leger and Apollinaire go to war.
1916
Picasso's friendship with the composer Erik Satie takes him into a new avant-garde circle that remains active during the war. The young poet Jean Cocteau plans to stage a wartime theatrical event in 'Parade', a work about a circus sideshow that incorporates imagery of the new century, such as skyscrapers and airplanes. Picasso starts working on the sets and costumes in 1917 and travels to Rome with Cocteau where they join the choreographer of 'Parade'. On this occasion, Picasso meets his future wife, the Russian dancer Olga Kokhlova.
1918
Marries Olga Kokhlova
1921
Picasso's only legitimate child, Paulo, is born. Picasso continues collaborations with ballets and theatre.
1920s
Although he never becomes an official member of the group, he has intimate connections with the Surrealists, especially their main propagandist André Breton, who claims him as one of their own. Picasso's art gains a new dimension from this contact with his Surrealist friends, particularly the writers. The juxtapositions and broken contours of the human figure in Cubist works seems to coincide with the dreamlike imagery of the Surrealists. The Surrealist movement gives Picasso new, especially erotic subjects as well as a reinforcement of disturbing elements already in his work. The many variations on the subject of bathers with their overtly sexual and contorted forms ('Dinard Series', 1929) show clearly the impact of Surrealism.
1928
Picasso begins working in iron and sheet metal in Julio Gonzalez's studio in Paris.
1931
With his new mistress, Marie-Thérèse Walter, he leaves Paris and his wife and moves to a country home at Boisgeloup where he has room for sculpture studios. Begins working on large-scale plaster heads with Marie-Thérèse as his muse.
1935
Their daughter Maya is born.
1930s
Like many of the Surrealist writers, Picasso often plays with the idea of metamorphosis, e.g. the image of the minotaur that traditionally has been seen as the embodiment of the struggle between the human and the bestial. For Picasso, it also serves as a self-portrait.
1932
Exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zürich. First volume of Christian Zervos's catalogue raisonné is published. Picasso's fame increases markedly.
1936
Picasso moves back to Paris and begins to live with the Yugoslav photographer Dora Maar. The same year, the Spanish Civil War begins.
1937
Paints the mural painting 'Guernica', named for the Basque town bombed in 1937 by the Fascists commissioned by the Republican government for the Spanish pavilion at the World's Fair in Paris. The imagery in 'Guernica' – the gored horse, the fallen soldier, and screaming mothers with dead babies was employed to condemn the useless destruction of life.
1939
Exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art, New York
1939-45
Picasso spends the years of World War II in France. The expressive quality of 'Guernica' finds its way into Picasso's other work, e.g. in portraits of Dora Maar and in still lifes.
1943
The young painter Françoise Gilot presents herself at the studio and becomes the successor to Dora Maar.
1944
At the Autumn Salon, Picasso's canvases and sculptures of the preceding five years are received as a shock. Moreover, Picasso announces his membership of the Communist Party which leads to demonstrations in the exhibition itself. At the same time, Picasso opens up his studio to both new and old writer and artist friends, including Jean-Paul Sartre, Paul Éluard, and Brassaї.
1946
Picasso moves to the Mediterranean with Gilot (with whom he is to have two children, Claude in 1947 and Paloma in 1949). First they move to Antibes, then nearby Vallauris where Picasso produces ceramics, experimenting with the play between decoration and form. Moreover, he reinterprets the old masters like Goya, Poussin, Manet and Courbin. His fame increasingly attracts visitors, including artists and writers.
1953
Françoise Gilot with their two children leaves Picasso. He divides his time between Paris and his home at La Californie, near Cannes.
1954
Picasso meets Jacqueline Roque who works in the pottery shop in Vallauris.
1955
Exhibition at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris
1958
Picasso purchases the castle at Vauvenargues. He continues his work in painting, drawing, prints, ceramics, and sculpture.
1961
Picasso and Jacqueline Roque get married and move to Mougins. She becomes the principal image and source of inspiration for practically all of the late work.
1973
Dies on April 8, 1973 in Mougins. Picasso and Jacqueline Roque are buried at Vauvenargues.
Past Gallery Exhibitions
NEW YORK From Daumier to Matisse French Master Drawings from the Collection of John C. Whitehead April 14 - May 15, 2010