Essay Example on He was given the name Pablo Ruiz Picasso

Picasso was born in Malaga Spain in 1881 He was given the name Pablo Ruiz Picasso taking the names of both his mother and father in the traditional Spaniard way His father was a taught art at a local school in their town Picasso's father taught him to paint from a very young age He was very gifted even at such a young age so much so that his father even asked him to finish paintings for him sometimes Although Picasso is known for his more abstract works of art he attended multiple art schools and was taught all types of art styles such as figure drawings landscapes and portraits In 1895 Picasso's family moved to Barcelona Being in a larger town Picasso had more opportunities to keep up to day with the art world At only 14 years old Picasso was accepted into a senior course This course focused on still life and classical art styles His professors thought he was a brilliant artist In 1897 Picasso studied at the Academia Deal de San Fernando in Madrid He wasn't very interested in his class work and what his teachers had to offer Instead Picasso spent his time studying old painting on his own In 1899 After spending several months in Horta de Ebro with a close friend he returned to Barcelona It was around this time that Picasso started hanging out with a new group and they heavily influenced Picasso's use of symbolism By 1900 Picasso displayed 150 drawing at Els Quatre Gats several of these drawings were published and the painting called Last Moments Was chosen for an exhibition in Paris Picasso knew that 

Paris was the place to make an impression Here painters were able to do as they please and act on any ideas that came to mind Picasso enjoyed his time in Paris and continued to ground his career and work his way through different styles of painting After 1907 Picasso began to branch out from the normal style of painting His work became more abstract and cubism because the focus of a lot of his work Once he discovered this new way of expressing his art he became even more enthralled in his work Some of his most famous work consisted of Still Life with Chair Caning The Three Musicians and The Woman in White None of these works of art were as famous as a painting he did in the late 1930 s his most celebrated work Guernica In 1936 Picasso was asked by the Spanish government to complete a large piece of art for the 1937 Paris Exhibition At first Picasso had no idea what he was going to paint on a canvas that was so large measuring 11 6 by 25 6 Picasso originally started working on a piece that he wasn t extremely passionate about That all changed after April 26th 1937 At this time the left winged parties dominated parliament they began reforming the ways things were done in Spain The republican forces had very different views than that of the current government who wanted Spain to go back to the way things used to be with traditional catholic values The right winged party decided they were going to fight back and a rebellion broke out Despite this lack of supplies and and outdated weapons they had the international support of the United States England and France Although they had the support of these nations they were unable to assist the republic because of a Non intervention Pact 

The leader of the Nationalist party General Francisco Franco was unable to break the spirits of the rebellion He turned to his allies Hitler and Mussolini He asked Hilter if we could have access to the Fuhrer's fighters and bombers known as the Condor Legion Mussolini provided fighters from the Italian Air Force Franco wanted to take control of the port in Bilbao to control the shipping and industry facilities located here Very near to the port in Bilbao was a town called Guernica Guernica was a small town in the province of Biscay in the Basque Country and was once the capital of the region This town was thought to be support for the republican resistance movement and a large meca for Basque culture during the Spanish Civil War The Basques were a group in Spain that wanted autonomy within Spain They had their own regional government and had sided against Franco and his men To back the Nationalist efforts on Monday April 26th 1937 Wolfram Freiherr con Richthofen commander of the Condor Legion was given orders to strike the railroad station and bridge in Guernica Franco believed that the destruction of these two key access point would cease the Republic forces from arriving to defend the town It was believed that Monday was the towns market day and with a population of around 5 000 people this would be a day many people were out and about Around 4 30 pm the first bomb was dropped instilling mass panic among the streets This was followed by thirty six 50 kg bombs and fighter planes dropping more explosives and incendiary bonds The original target were spared and the bridge and industry building were not to damaged The towns people attempted to fight the raging fires but there was significant damage to their water systems and fire hydrants Nearly three quarters of the town was burned down estimates vary of how many people perished in these bombing stating somewhere between 800 and 1 500 men women and children were killed that day World wide the bombing of Guernica was considered a crime against humanity When Picasso heard the news of the horrible day he immediately knew what he needed to paint for his mural