Ep. 110: Picasso – Top 6 Paintings

November 5, 2023 Peter Jans

Intro

Hello and Welcome to this episode of the podcast, "The Mnemonic Tree", where we add a single mnemonic leaf to our Tree of Knowledge.

I’m Jans you Mnemonic Man and today's episode is on one, of the most influential artists of the 20th century Pablo Picasso. Picasso was born in Malaga in the south of Spain in 1881, but is commonly confused as being French as that’s where he spent most of his life. This was as a result of the Spanish civil war where Franco took over and Spanish democracy was dissolved and Picasso would never return as a result. Now it’s important to mention that Picasso was no freedom loving hippie. He supported communism and was part of the communist party. So, I suppose its just levels with fascism being one step to far for him.

Picasso went through a myriad styles and periods over his seven decades, producing a staggering number of woks exceeding 150,000. Along the way he founded cubism with the Frenchman Georges Braque in Paris around 1907.

Today’s mnemonic is on Picasso Top 6 Paintings.

So, with that being said, we will begin with a summary from Wikipedia.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pablo_picasso_1.jpg

Wikipedia Summary

Pablo Ruiz Picasso[a][b] (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture,[8][9] the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and the anti-war painting Guernica (1937), a dramatic portrayal of the bombing of Guernica by German and Italian air forces during the Spanish Civil War.

Picasso demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent in his early years, painting in a naturalistic manner through his childhood and adolescence. During the first decade of the 20th century, his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas. After 1906, the Fauvist work of the older artist Henri Matisse motivated Picasso to explore more radical styles, beginning a fruitful rivalry between the two artists, who subsequently were often paired by critics as the leaders of modern art.[10][11][12][13]

Picasso's output, especially in his early career, is often periodized. While the names of many of his later periods are debated, the most commonly accepted periods in his work are the Blue Period (1901–1904), the Rose Period (1904–1906), the African-influenced Period (1907–1909), Analytic Cubism (1909–1912), and Synthetic Cubism (1912–1919), also referred to as the Crystal period. Much of Picasso's work of the late 1910s and early 1920s is in a neoclassical style, and his work in the mid-1920s often has characteristics of Surrealism. His later work often combines elements of his earlier styles.

Exceptionally prolific throughout the course of his long life, Picasso achieved universal renown and immense fortune for his revolutionary artistic accomplishments and became one of the best-known figures in 20th-century art.

Extracted from: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso]

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Portrait_de_Picasso,_1908.jpg

Mnemonic

Pablo Picasso – Top 6 Paintings – LiTTLe GeM

(Picture a little Picasso as he was only 1.63 m, who was a gem (outstanding) at painting)

1. Le Reve

2. The Old Guitarist

3. The Weeping Woman

4. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

5. Guernica

6. Man With a Pipe

Five Fun Facts

1. Pablo Picasso has got to hold some kind of record for the longest name. He was christened with a name no less than 25-words long! That name is Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso.

2. Picasso was actually lucky to be alive at all. When he was delivered the nurses thought he was stillborn and was placed on the side table so they could attend to the mother who had complications in labour. Luckily his uncle who was actually a doctor was puffing a cigar at the time and the smoke made the young Picasso cry, so his uncle went to work and saved his life.

3. Picasso made the most of his chance with life and produced over 150,000 works. His first known painting was “Le Picador” in 1890 which he produced when he was 9 years old.

4. Picasso was married twice (Olga & Jacqueline) and had four children with three different women. He was known for his affairs and a number of his works were inspired by his lovers.

Along with these affairs he was also known to love boxing. Unfortunately, he wasn’t much good and spent way too much time on the canvas!

5. The last words of Picasso have been immortalised in a song by Paul McCartney and Wings. The song is called Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me) and was released on the 1973 album Band on the Run. And those last words were “Drink to me, drink to my health. You know I can’t drink anymore”. Following this he died in his sleep of a heart attack.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1973_Dokfilm_Picasso_de_Lucien_Clergue_Condor_Films.jpg

Three Question Quiz

Q.1. In what country and area was Picasso born?

Q.2. Which of Picasso’s paintings demonstrates the horrors of war?

Q.3. What painting was Picasso suspected of stealing in 1911?

Bonus Q. Picasso was one of the founders of which artistic movement?

Bonus Q. What decade did Picasso die?

Mnemonic Recap

Pablo Picasso – Top 6 Paintings – LiTTLe GeM

(Picture a little Picasso as he was at 1.63 m, who was a gem (outstanding) at painting)

1. Le Reve

2. The Old Guitarist