What Kind of Art Did Picasso Do?

People who have never even seen Picasso's work have definitely seen art influenced by this notable and pioneering man. Born in Spain in 1881, his full name was Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso---you can call him Picasso. He died in 1973, but not without first making a major mark in the art world. He continues to be studied and imitated and shall be for years to come.

Picasso largely took his subjects from real life, although many of his abstract works look anything but life-like. He was big on portraits, nudes, families and children and scenes from rural life and carnivals. He also featured a lot of still life, including newspapers, vases with flowers, fruit and many instruments, especially the guitar.

One of the most notable movements for which Picasso is known is Cubism. Picasso and artist Georges Braque co-founded this movement, which hit the scene around 1908. Cubism dictates that an object can only be fully realized when it is shown from multiple points of view at the same time. Some of Picasso's cubist works include a cubist nude, Fruit in a Vase and Flowers in a Grey Jar.

Before he turned to cubism, Picasso's early works displayed an overall blue hue and somewhat depressing themes. This work, which began while Picasso was in his late teens, was said to stem from the suicide of his friend Casagemas. Works from this era are part of Picasso's Blue Period. Some include Le Gourmet, with a child standing at a table and scraping from an empty bowl, The Tragedy, where a man, woman and child appear to have been given devastating news and La Celestina, a portrait of an older woman with a blind eye.

Picasso's down-in-the-dumps Blue Period was followed by a much more upbeat Rose Period in 1905. The Rose Period features lighter hues and subjects that are much less depressing than a blinded old woman. Here's where his circus clowns and Harlequin performers first came in to play. Works from this period include self-descriptive Lady with a Fan as well as two views of a Harlequin family, one with the father and mother embracing a small child and the other with an ape.

Picasso's sculptures were equally as abstract, thought-provoking and fantastical as some of his paintings. His sculptures were made of metal, stone and even debris. Some of the more notable include a bull's head made from old bicycle parts and his gargantuan, nameless creation that sort of looks like a woman's profile, a baboon or a bird, which is on display at the Daley Center in Chicago.