Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Marìa de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santìsima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (Malaga, 25 October 1881 – Mougins, 8 April 1973)
His father, Don José Ruiz y Blasco, was a teacher at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando and curator of the city’s museum, and was willing to teach to him everything he knew.
From an early age he is recognised as one of the most important authors of his time. At 19 he moves to Paris and when the Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911 his name was in the suspect list (The Mona Lisa was retrieved in 1913 and was stolen by an italian, Vincenzo Peruggia, who wanted to give it to the Uffizi, in Florence).
In Paris he meets various artists, among them Apollinaire, Marc Chagall and Amedeo Modigliani, with this last one, other than a strong friendship a rivalry is established, an example of it is that Picasso used a Modigliani’s work as a canvas where he painted himself in.
His atelier becomes a coming and going of prominent people, and the group was shortly after called Bande à Picasso.
His name is tied especially to the artistic movement of the cubism but, for convenience, his long carreer was divided in periods: “Blue Period”, “Rose Period”, “African Period” and the “Crystal Period”.
Considered one of the masterpieces of the 20th century, the Guernica represents the consequences of the bombing on the city of Guernica. To the Nazi ambassador Otto Abetz who entered his atelier in Paris and asked, indicating the painting: “Did you do that?” he answered “No, you did.”
The Chicago Picasso is a nameless monument made by Picasso, placed in Daley Plaza in Chicago, Illinois. It was commissioned by the architects of the Richard J. Daley Center in 1963 and approved in 1966, it was inaugurated in the 15 August 1967. Picasso refused to be paid for the work.
Based on numerous reports, it seems to be the head of an Afghan Hound.
