Surviving Picasso (1996)
Director: James Ivory
Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Natasha McElhone
Picasso was quite the womanizer, leaving many a broken heart in his wake. This is the story of a woman who was a lover to Picasso for some ten years and who had two children by the famous artist and yet survived the experience and actually became stronger for it. And, I must say, it felt good to see the ego-maniac Picasso get his come-uppance for once.
Historical Background:
1881 (October 25) -- birth of Pablo Ruiz Picasso in Malaga, Spain. His father was a painter and a professor of art.
In his childhood, he attended many art schools. When he was older he went to the Academia de San Fernando in Madrid, but did not even last a full year there.
In Barcelona, he became good friends with a fellow painter, Jaime Sabartés, who for many years, was Picasso's personal secretary.
He moved to Paris, France. In Paris he was part of an artistic circle with many famous men and women, including Modigliani (see Modigliani for additional information.)
1901-1904 -- his Blue Period with blue-tinted paintings.
1905-1907 -- his Rose Period with many orange and pink colors. he had a long term relationship with Fernande Olivier, who appeared in many of the Rose period paintings.
1908-1909 -- African-influenced Period.
1909-1912 -- Analytic Cubism Period.
Picasso left Olivier for Marcelle Humbert (Eva). The artist included declarations of love for the woman in many Cubist works. Humbert died of cancer
1912-1919 -- Synthetic Cubism Period.
World War I -- Picasso did not fight for the Allies against the Germans. He stayed neutral.
1918 -- Picasso married Olga Khoklova, a ballerina with Sergei Diaghilev's troupe.
1920s -- Olga introduced Picasso to high society life in Paris. And yet this also caused a great deal of friction in the relationship, because Picasso was more bohemian than aristocrat. The two had a son, Paulo, who was a near-do-well and later his father's chauffeur.
1927 -- Picasso began a secret affair with 17 year old Marie-ThérPse Walter. Olga and Picasso separated, but remained married until Olga's death in 1955. Together Ms. Walter and Picasso had a daughter, Maia.
He did not return to fight in the Spanish Civil War. Rather he stayed neutral again.
1937 -- painted Guernica about the Fascist bombing of a small village by that name. Picasso's lover, Dora Maar, made an extensive photographic record of the the painting of the piece.
World War II -- again Picasso remained neutral. He lived in Paris during the German occupation of that city. During this time he met a young art student, Françoise Gilot, with whom he started a relationship. They were together for some ten years and had two children, Claude and Paloma.
post-WWII era -- Picasso rejoined the French Communist Party. He attended an international peace conference in Poland.
1950s -- Picasso began to make new paintings based on the art of the great masters.
1951 -- Picasso had a six-week affair with GeneviPve Laporte.
1953 -- Françoise left Picasso because of abuse and infidelities. This was very hard on Picasso. He was now in his 70's and upset that he was no longer such an attraction for young women.
1961 -- Picasso married Jacqueline Roque, who worked at the Madoura Pottery, where Picasso made ceramics. The two remained together for the rest of Picasso's life.
The marriage was part of a complex plan of Picasso's to take revenge on Françoise Gilot, the woman who left him in 1953. Gilot wanted to legitimize her two children. Picasso agreed that if she would divorce her husband, Luc Simon, he would marry her. After Gilot divorced her husband Picasso married Roque.
1967 -- unveiling of a Picasso sculpture in downtown Chicago.
1968-1971 -- Picasso did many paintings in what later was known as neo-expressionism.
1973 (April 8) -- Pablo Picasso died.
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