The Basket By Picasso

Watermelon Linocut by Picasso

Picasso (1881–1973) is the most influential and celebrated European artist of the 20th century and the graphic arts played a hugely important part in his output.

He began by producing linocut posters for ceramic exhibitions and bullfighting events in Vallauris with the

About the Artist

Pablo Picasso was born on October 25, 1881, in Málaga, Spain. The son of an academic painter, José Ruiz Blanco, he began to draw at an early age. In 1895, the Picasso family moved to Barcelona. It was there that Pablo studied at La Lonja, the local academy of fine arts. His association with the patrons of the café Els Quatre Gats in the late 1890s was crucial to his early artistic development in that the café was a nexus of social life among artists, authors, musicians, and the like, as well as the site of several music performances and tertulias (‘literary gatherings’).

Picasso’s visual style and choice of subject matter developed dramatically over a short period of time. The time between 1901 and 1904 has come be known as his ‘Blue Period,’ 1905 his ‘Rose Period,’ from 1908 to 1911 his Analytic Cubist phase, and from 1912 forward his Synthetic Cubist phase. The Blue Period is named for Picasso’s color palette at the time, and is distinguished by its subject matter: vagrants, outcasts, prostitutes, and otherwise marginalized people. The Rose Period marked a brightening of Picasso’s palette: pinks, beiges, roses, and light blues. His choice of subject matter followed suit: clowns, harlequins, and saltimbanques (‘circus people