By Ariadni, 16 years old
Pablo Picasso was born in 1881 in Malaga, a city of South Spain. His father was a painter whose favorite subject was pigeons. He was allowing little Pablo to help him and soon he discovered that the boy had a special talent. After a while he handed his paintbrushes to his son and never painted again.
When he was just 15 years old, Pablo painted his famous and awarded painting Science and Charity (Ciencia Y Caridad), where his father served as his model. The painting tells a story in a photographic way – a technique that was very popular back then.
Soon, young Pablo lost interest in that technique. When his beloved friend Carlos Casagemas, after being heartbroken took his own life, Pablo went through a very melancholic period and painted sorrowful, lonely figures using a blue color palette (that was his Blue Period that lasted until 1904).
When young Pablo moved to Paris he started enjoying the company of charming and charismatic personalities he met there. He regained his optimism, and soon his warm positive emotions were evident in his art (Pink Period).
During a visit in the house of a famous writer of that time, Picasso was impressed by an African mask that was brought there by his friend, painter Henri Matisse. He held the mask for the rest of the evening and the inspiration he gained changed once more the course of his art.
An exhibition of Paul Cezanne’s work, which was also influenced by African Art, after the painter’s death in 1906 also played an important role in Picasso’s new inspiration.
Then Pablo created one of his most characteristic pieces of art: “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”, where one of the heads is clearly African just like the sculpture-mask that Matisse was holding.
