Picasso: Unusual Facts
Only a Painter?
In popular knowledge, Picasso is known as a famous painter. But in reality he was a versatile artist who was equally adept at sculpture, printmaking, ceramic art and stage designing. He took all these art forms to great heights and could have earned name if he had pursued anyone. He composed some poetry also.
Body of Work
Picasso is estimated to have created 13500 paintings including designs. His engravings number 100000 and he produced 34000 book illustrations. His creations in sculpture and ceramics are 300.
Expensive Paintings
Many of the Picasso’s paintings are among the most expensive works of art in the world. The painting ‘Garcon a la Pipe’ fetched a record price of $104 million at Sotheby’s in 2004. Another of his paintings ‘Les Noces de Pierrette’ (The Marriage of Pierrette) sold for $51.6 million.
Quick Affair
Picasso’s affair with his young art student Francoise Gilot in 1944 ended in 1953 when she walked out of his life as a rebuff to his infidelity. Picasso then 72 became extremely depressed as this was the first time that a woman had openly revolted against him and rejected him. To forget this frustration, he was engaged in the quickest affair of his life with a beautiful and young girl named Genevieve Laporte. The affair survived only six weeks.
Little Known Facts
When Picasso was only 13 years of age, he arranged an exhibition of his paintings (his first in life) in a room on the backside of a store selling umbrella. Picasso shunned contests in art and hardly ever took part in any such contests. The ancient Spanish city of Guernica was ravaged in the Spanish Civil War of 1936. Picasso was infuriated at this brutality and produced the painting ‘Guernica’ completing it in 1937 in just a few weeks. During World War II Paris was occupied by the Nazis and they disapproved modern art. Picasso who was then living in Paris was forced to hide his works in the Bank of France where these were kept in a secret vault.
