High School
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Pablo Picasso, the Inventor of Cubism
Pablo Picasso
Reading Comprehension for October 25
It is ironic that someone born with an enormous name ended up being known by just one word! This artist was born with the name Pablo Diego Jose Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Crispin Crispiniano Maria Remedios de la Santisima Trinidad Ruiz Picasso. Whew! No wonder he later was known simply as Picasso.
Picasso was born on October 25, 1881, in Malaga, Spain. His father was a painter and also an art professor at the local art academy. Young Picasso showed tremendous talent. Some even called him a child prodigy. His father taught him in classical techniques. The boy eagerly made sketches of casts of ancient sculptures and painted striking portraits of family members. He never completed his college education at the Royal Academy of San Fernando, showing his independent spirit.
Even though his father gave him his strong artistic background, Picasso's mother also played a role in his future success. She had great faith in his ability to rise to the top of whatever field he chose. Picasso said once, "My mother said to me, 'If you become a soldier, you'll be a general; if you become a monk you'll end up as the pope.' Instead, I became a painter and wound up as Picasso."
Picasso's style changed a lot over his life, and his most lasting contribution to modern art was the development of a style called cubism. Picasso had several recognizable artistic periods. If you think of his life's work as an ice cream sundae, his first classical period might be the foundation of the sundae, or the vanilla ice cream; plain and simple.
