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87-581: Originally sold as a working man's knife, an Opinel knife has become emblematic of French culture. Pablo Picasso is said to have used one of the company's knives as a sculpting tool. In 1989, the Larousse dictionary cited "Opinel" as a registered trademark. Joseph Opinel began making knives in 1890 in Savoie, France as a simple working man's or peasant's knife . It proved popular with the local farmers, herdsmen, and paysans-vignerons (peasant winemakers) of

174-402: A Sandvik 12C27M stainless steel ( acier inox ) blade. Custom Opinel models are available using luxurious or exotic handle woods such as oak , walnut , olive wood , bubinga (African rosewood), ebony and stained hornbeam , as well as other materials such as cowhorn. The Opinel Slim Effilé series uses a tapered handle with a slender clip point blade made of Sandvik stainless steel, and

261-493: A heart attack , the morning after he and his wife Jacqueline entertained friends for dinner. He was interred at the Château of Vauvenargues near Aix-en-Provence , a property he had acquired in 1958 and occupied with Jacqueline between 1959 and 1962. Jacqueline prevented his children Claude and Paloma from attending the funeral. Devastated and lonely after the death of Picasso, Jacqueline killed herself by gunshot in 1986 when she

348-522: A series of works based on Velázquez 's painting of Las Meninas . He also based paintings on works by Goya , Poussin , Manet , Courbet and Delacroix . In addition to his artistic accomplishments, Picasso made a few film appearances, always as himself, including a cameo in Jean Cocteau 's Testament of Orpheus (1960). In 1955, he helped make the film Le Mystère Picasso ( The Mystery of Picasso ) directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot . He

435-456: A German art historian and art collector who became one of the premier French art dealers of the 20th century. He was among the first champions of Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and the Cubism that they jointly developed. Kahnweiler promoted burgeoning artists such as André Derain , Kees van Dongen , Fernand Léger , Juan Gris , Maurice de Vlaminck and several others who had come from all over

522-616: A beautiful young model. Jacqueline Roque (1927–1986) worked at the Madoura Pottery in Vallauris on the French Riviera , where Picasso made and painted ceramics. She became his lover, and then his second wife in 1961. The two were together for the remainder of Picasso's life. His marriage to Roque was also a means of revenge against Gilot; with Picasso's encouragement, Gilot had divorced her then-husband, Luc Simon, with

609-500: A comedic character usually depicted in checkered patterned clothing, became a personal symbol for Picasso. Picasso met Fernande Olivier , a bohemian artist who became his mistress, in Paris in 1904. Olivier appears in many of his Rose Period paintings, many of which are influenced by his warm relationship with her, in addition to his increased exposure to French painting. The generally upbeat and optimistic mood of paintings in this period

696-519: A day, judging his drawings. The two argued frequently. Picasso's father and uncle decided to send the young artist to Madrid's Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando , the country's foremost art school. At age 16, Picasso set off for the first time on his own, but he disliked formal instruction and stopped attending classes soon after enrollment. Madrid held many other attractions. The Prado housed paintings by Diego Velázquez , Francisco Goya , and Francisco Zurbarán . Picasso especially admired

783-473: A doubt one of the greatest in the whole history of Spanish painting." In 1897, his realism began to show a Symbolist influence, for example, in a series of landscape paintings rendered in non-naturalistic violet and green tones. What some call his Modernist period (1899–1900) followed. His exposure to the work of Rossetti , Steinlen , Toulouse-Lautrec and Edvard Munch , combined with his admiration for favourite old masters such as El Greco , led Picasso to

870-695: A fruitful rivalry between the two artists, who subsequently were often paired by critics as the leaders of modern art . Picasso's output, especially in his early career, is often periodized. While the names of many of his later periods are debated, the most commonly accepted periods in his work are the Blue Period (1901–1904), the Rose Period (1904–1906), the African-influenced Period (1907–1909), Analytic Cubism (1909–1912), and Synthetic Cubism (1912–1919), also referred to as

957-409: A long-standing affair with Marie-Thérèse Walter and fathered a daughter with her, named Maya. Marie-Thérèse lived in the vain hope that Picasso would one day marry her, and hanged herself four years after Picasso's death. In February 1917, Picasso made his first trip to Italy. In the period following the upheaval of World War I, Picasso produced work in a neoclassical style. This " return to order "

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1044-461: A mushroom knife ( couteau à champignon ), with an integral boar's hair cleaning brush. In 2014, Opinel again released new varieties of knives for cooking. Pablo Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker , ceramicist , and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France . One of the most influential artists of

1131-759: A nearly bare table. Blindness, a recurrent theme in Picasso's works of this period, is also represented in The Blindman's Meal (1903, the Metropolitan Museum of Art ) and in the portrait of Celestina (1903). Other Blue Period works include Portrait of Soler and Portrait of Suzanne Bloch . The Rose Period (1904–1906) is characterized by a lighter tone and style utilizing orange and pink colours and featuring many circus people, acrobats and harlequins known in France as saltimbanques. The harlequin,

1218-460: A passion and a skill for drawing from an early age. According to his mother, his first words were "piz, piz", a shortening of lápiz , the Spanish word for "pencil". From the age of seven, Picasso received formal artistic training from his father in figure drawing and oil painting. Ruiz was a traditional academic artist and instructor, who believed that proper training required disciplined copying of

1305-458: A personal version of modernism in his works of this period. Picasso made his first trip to Paris , then the art capital of Europe, in 1900. There, he met his first Parisian friend, journalist and poet Max Jacob , who helped Picasso learn the language and its literature. Soon they shared an apartment; Max slept at night while Picasso slept during the day and worked at night. These were times of severe poverty, cold, and desperation. Much of his work

1392-486: A pipe, a guitar or a glass, with an occasional element of collage. "Hard-edged square-cut diamonds", notes art historian John Richardson , "these gems do not always have upside or downside". "We need a new name to designate them," wrote Picasso to Gertrude Stein . The term " Crystal Cubism " was later used as a result of visual analogies with crystals at the time. These "little gems" may have been produced by Picasso in response to critics who had claimed his defection from

1479-539: A reinterpretation of his work by contemporary art historians and scholars. According to Jonathan Weinberg, "Given the extraordinary quality of the show and Picasso's enormous prestige, generally heightened by the political impact of Guernica ... the critics were surprisingly ambivalent". Picasso's "multiplicity of styles" was disturbing to one journalist; another described him as "wayward and even malicious"; Alfred Frankenstein 's review in ARTnews concluded that Picasso

1566-431: A son, Paulo Picasso , who would grow up to be a motorcycle racer and chauffeur to his father. Khokhlova's insistence on social propriety clashed with Picasso's bohemian tendencies and the two lived in a state of constant conflict. During the same period that Picasso collaborated with Diaghilev's troupe, he and Igor Stravinsky collaborated on Pulcinella in 1920. Picasso took the opportunity to make several drawings of

1653-548: Is a style of painting Picasso developed with Georges Braque using monochrome brownish and neutral colours. Both artists took apart objects and "analyzed" them in terms of their shapes. Picasso and Braque's paintings at this time share many similarities. In Paris, Picasso entertained a distinguished coterie of friends in the Montmartre and Montparnasse quarters, including André Breton , poet Guillaume Apollinaire , writer Alfred Jarry and Gertrude Stein . In 1911, Picasso

1740-407: Is designed to be opened with two hands, and a nail nick is provided on the blade. It is possible to adjust the fitting of the safety locking collar if it is too tight or too loose. Those practiced in the art of coup du savoyard grip the metal collar between index finger and thumb and tap the heel of the handle firmly on a hard surface, as if using it as a drumstick; the blade should open slightly from

1827-781: Is evident in the work of many European artists in the 1920s, including André Derain , Giorgio de Chirico , Gino Severini , Jean Metzinger , the artists of the New Objectivity movement and of the Novecento Italiano movement. Picasso's paintings and drawings from this period frequently recall the work of Raphael and Ingres . In 1925 the Surrealist writer and poet André Breton declared Picasso as 'one of ours' in his article Le Surréalisme et la peinture , published in Révolution surréaliste . Les Demoiselles

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1914-521: Is his depiction of the German bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War – Guernica . This large canvas embodies for many the inhumanity, brutality and hopelessness of war. Asked to explain its symbolism, Picasso said, "It isn't up to the painter to define the symbols. Otherwise it would be better if he wrote them out in so many words! The public who look at the picture must interpret

2001-442: Is quite sturdy. Due to the way in which the locking collar tapers, the blade does not loosen over time and can be fixed firmly even once the mechanism is quite worn. In 2000 the locking collar was modified slightly to allow the blade to be locked in the closed as well as the open position. This feature prevents the blade from opening by accident when carried in a pocket. Eighty percent of all Opinel knives use traditional beechwood for

2088-689: Is reminiscent of the 1899–1901 period (i.e., just prior to the Blue Period), and 1904 can be considered a transition year between the two periods. By 1905, Picasso became a favourite of American art collectors Leo and Gertrude Stein . Their older brother Michael Stein and his wife Sarah also became collectors of his work. Picasso painted a portrait of Gertrude Stein and one of her nephew Allan Stein . Gertrude Stein became Picasso's principal patron, acquiring his drawings and paintings and exhibiting them in her informal Salon at her home in Paris. At one of her gatherings in 1905, he met Henri Matisse , who

2175-465: The Couteau du Jardin , Opinel also offers a hawkbill-bladed pruning knife designed for use in the garden or vineyard, and a large folding wood saw with locking blade using the same Virobloc mechanism as found on large Opinel knives. For the kitchen, the company sells vegetable peelers, chefs knives, paring knives, knives with corkscrews ( couteau tire-bouchon ), and prep knives for the kitchen, including

2262-482: The Crystal period . Much of Picasso's work of the late 1910s and early 1920s is in a neoclassical style, and his work in the mid-1920s often has characteristics of Surrealism . His later work often combines elements of his earlier styles. Exceptionally prolific throughout the course of his long life, Picasso achieved universal renown and immense fortune for his revolutionary artistic accomplishments, and became one of

2349-635: The Porsche 911 sports car and the Rolex watch. The Opinel was also selected as one of the 999 classic designs in Phaidon Design Classics , and has been exhibited by the New York's Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) as a design masterpiece. The traditional Opinel knife has a beechwood handle and a high carbon XC90 steel ( acier au carbone ) blade. Opinel also offers most of its models with

2436-543: The Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur . He was an international celebrity, with often as much interest in his personal life as his art. Picasso was one of 250 sculptors who exhibited in the 3rd Sculpture International held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art in mid-1949. In the 1950s, Picasso's style changed once again, as he took to producing reinterpretations of the art of the great masters. He made

2523-481: The Spanish Civil War . Picasso demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent in his early years, painting in a naturalistic manner through his childhood and adolescence. During the first decade of the 20th century, his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas. After 1906, the Fauvist work of the older artist Henri Matisse motivated Picasso to explore more radical styles, beginning

2610-642: The Spanish Republican cause . Yatagan The yatagan , yataghan , or ataghan (from Turkish yatağan ), also called varsak , is a type of Ottoman knife or short sabre used from the mid-16th to late 19th century. The yatagan was extensively used in Ottoman Turkey and in areas under immediate Ottoman influence, such as the Balkans, Caucasus, and North Africa. Although weapons with features similar to yatagan were in use from

2697-761: The Still Life with Guitar (1942) and The Charnel House (1944–48). Although the Germans outlawed bronze casting in Paris, Picasso continued regardless, using bronze smuggled to him by the French Resistance . Around this time, Picasso wrote poetry as an alternative outlet. Between 1935 and 1959 he wrote more than 300 poems. Largely untitled except for a date and sometimes the location of where they were written (for example "Paris 16 May 1936"), these works were gustatory, erotic, and at times scatological , as were his two full-length plays, Desire Caught by

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2784-491: The relics of John the Baptist , three of whose finger-bones were supposedly brought back from Alexandria by Saint Tecla in the 5th century. The crown comes from the arms of Savoy , the larger region containing Savoie . Opinel knives are currently offered in eleven numbered sizes: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, and 13. The No. 1 Opinel was discontinued in 1932. With its tiny 2 cm (0.787-inch) blade and boxwood handle, it

2871-399: The 1930s, the minotaur replaced the harlequin as a common motif in his work. His use of the minotaur came partly from his contact with the surrealists, who often used it as their symbol, and it appears in Picasso's Guernica . The minotaur and Picasso's mistress Marie-Thérèse Walter are heavily featured in his celebrated Vollard Suite of etchings. Arguably Picasso's most famous work

2958-491: The 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture , the co-invention of collage , and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and the anti-war painting Guernica (1937), a dramatic portrayal of the bombing of Guernica by German and Italian air forces during

3045-615: The French anti-fascist activist and surrealist photographer, Dora Maar . In addition, her black and white photographs are likely to have influenced the black and white scheme of Guernica , in stark contrast to Picasso's usual colorful paintings. "Maar's practice of photography influenced the art of Picasso – she had a great influence on his work," said Antoine Romand, a Dora Maar expert. "She contested him. She pushed him to do something new and to be more creative politically." Maar had exclusive access to Picasso's studio to observe and photograph

3132-588: The Opinel No. 8 and No. 10 Pruning Knives, designed for pruning shrubs and vines, feature a large folding hawkbill blade fitted to an elegantly curved wooden handle. The Opinel Slim Effile series use a thinner-profile stainless steel blade fitted to a tapered wood handle. Available in several sizes and handle materials, the Slim Effile knives are intended for tasks such as cleaning and fileting fish and thinly slicing meats and cheeses. The traditional Opinel

3219-720: The Tail (1941), The Four Little Girls (1949) and The Burial of the Count of Orgaz (1959). In 1944, after the liberation of Paris, Picasso, then 63 years old, began a romantic relationship with a young art student named Françoise Gilot . She was 40 years younger than he was. Picasso grew tired of his mistress Dora Maar ; Picasso and Gilot began to live together. Eventually, they had two children: Claude Picasso , born in 1947 and Paloma Picasso , born in 1949. In her 1964 book Life with Picasso , Gilot describes his abusive treatment and myriad infidelities which led her to leave him, taking

3306-406: The ancient times, its relation to them and its place of origin remains unknown. R. Elgood suggests that the yatagan is not a weapon native to Central Asia or Persia and it was adopted by Ottomans through their conquests, probably in the Balkans. The yatagan consists of a single-edged blade with a marked forward curve and a hilt formed of two grip plaques attached through the tang , the end of

3393-532: The area. In 1897, a series of twelve sizes, numbered 1 to 12, was developed. From 1901 to 1903, Joseph Opinel built his first factory in Pont de Gévoudaz and produced a machine for mass production of the knife's wooden handles. The company hired peddlers to sell the knives and opened a small shop near the Chambéry railway junction, where the knives became popular with PLM railroad workers, who in turn spread word of

3480-461: The art dealer Léonce Rosenberg . After the loss of Eva Gouel, Picasso had an affair with Gaby Lespinasse . During the spring of 1916, Apollinaire returned from the front wounded. They renewed their friendship, but Picasso began to frequent new social circles. Towards the end of World War I, Picasso became involved with Serge Diaghilev 's Ballets Russes . Among his friends during this period were Jean Cocteau , Jean Hugo , Juan Gris, and others. In

3567-409: The best-known figures in 20th-century art . Picasso was born at 23:15 on 25 October 1881, in the city of Málaga , Andalusia, in southern Spain. He was the first child of Don José Ruiz y Blasco (1838–1913) and María Picasso y López. Picasso's family was of middle-class background. His father was a painter who specialized in naturalistic depictions of birds and other game. For most of his life, Ruiz

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3654-472: The brand throughout France. By 1909, Opinel had registered his first trademark for the Opinel knife, choosing the main couronnée ("crowned hand") as his emblem. A few years later Opinel annual sales were in the hundreds of thousands, and by the start of World War II as many as 20 million knives had been sold. The Opinel Virobloc or safety twistlock mechanism was invented by Marcel Opinel in 1955, increasing

3741-401: The children with her. This was a severe blow to Picasso. Picasso had affairs with women of an even greater age disparity than his and Gilot's. While still involved with Gilot, in 1951 Picasso had a six-week affair with Geneviève Laporte , who was four years younger than Gilot. By his 70s, many paintings, ink drawings and prints have as their theme an old, grotesque dwarf as the doting lover of

3828-407: The composer. In 1927, Picasso met 17-year-old Marie-Thérèse Walter and began a secret affair with her. Picasso's marriage to Khokhlova soon ended in separation rather than divorce, as French law required an even division of property in the case of divorce, and Picasso did not want Khokhlova to have half his wealth. The two remained legally married until Khokhlova's death in 1955. Picasso carried on

3915-572: The creation of Guernica . At Picasso's request, Maar painted parts of the dying horse. In 1939 and 1940, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, under its director Alfred Barr , a Picasso enthusiast, held a major retrospective of Picasso's principal works until that time. This exhibition lionized Picasso, brought into full public view in America the scope of his artistry, and resulted in

4002-520: The eroticism that had been largely contained or sublimated since 1909", writes art historian Melissa McQuillan. Although this transition in Picasso's work was informed by Cubism for its spatial relations, "the fusion of ritual and abandon in the imagery recalls the primitivism of the Demoiselles and the elusive psychological resonances of his Symbolist work", writes McQuillan. Surrealism revived Picasso's attraction to primitivism and eroticism. During

4089-405: The friction of the clamping band against the compressed handle and knife tang to hold the blade open, much the same as all Opinel knives sold before 1955. This simple design was sometimes known as a " penny knife " or "peasant's knife". The locking collar ( Virobloc ) was patented in 1955 by Marcel Opinel, and is only found on the larger Opinel models (#6 and up). While simple, the locking mechanism

4176-548: The globe to live and work in Montparnasse at the time. Picasso's African-influenced Period (1907–1909) begins with his painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon . The three figures on the left were inspired by Iberian sculpture , but he repainted the faces of the two figures on the right after being powerfully impressed by African artefacts he saw in June 1907 in the ethnographic museum at Palais du Trocadéro . When he displayed

4263-573: The grips to the shoulder of the blade. The grip plaques are typically made from bone, ivory, horn, or silver, and spread out in two "wings" or "ears" to either side at the pommel (a feature which prevents the hilt slipping out of the hand when used for cutting). Regional variations in the hilts have been noted: Balkan yatagans tend to have larger ears, often made of bone or ivory, whilst Anatolian yatagans characteristically have smaller ears, more often made of horn or silver, while Ionian-coast Zeibeks carried T-Hilt Yataghans. Sophisticated artwork on both

4350-451: The handle centerline), while the flared butt at the base of the wood handle is referred to as a fishtail. The modern No. 8 knife consists of 5 pieces (formerly 4); the handle, the blade, the pivot or axle, the metal collar and the locking ring or "Virobloc". The blade is quite thin, only 1.68mm (.066 inches), which helps keep its weight to only 45g (1.6 ounces). Original Opinels and the smallest sizes today are still made of only 4 parts, lacking

4437-455: The handle may be obtained in a variety of different materials, including bubinga, olive, ebony and cowhorn. The current Opinel knife consists of a blade, wooden handle, stainless steel metal clamping band, stainless pivot pin (axle), and (except in the case of the smaller models) a stainless steel Virobloc locking collar, which locks the blade open or closed. Smaller Opinel models (Nos. 2 through 5) have no locking blade mechanism, and use only

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4524-425: The handle, allowing it to be rotated into position with the thumb. The main couronnée ("crowned hand") device was already present on the blade of very early models. Later the words OPINEL and FRANCE were added, as well as INOX ("stainless", from "INOXidable", meaning "non-oxidizable) in the case of stainless steel blades. The image of the hand comes from the arms of Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne , and represents

4611-415: The handle. The company's large demand for beechwood not infrequently results in a shortage of precut handle blanks, forcing the use of rectangular (bulk) sheets, which generate considerable wood waste. The excess wood waste and sawdust generated is subsequently recycled. The curve of the original Opinel blade is a Yatagan (more commonly described as a drop point with a blade slightly angled downwards from

4698-451: The hilt and the blade can be seen on many yatagans displayed today, indicating considerable symbolic value. Having no guard, the yatagan fitted closely into the top of the scabbard; this was customarily worn thrust into a waist sash, retained by a hook. The blade may have the Seal of Solomon motif pressed into the blade. Other popular imprints include the maker's signature symbol or a text from

4785-478: The hilt being shaped like large ears. The gap between the grips is covered by a metal strap, which is often decorated. The yatagans (also called varsaks , named after the Varsak Turkomans ) used by janissaries and other infantry soldiers were smaller and lighter than ordinary swords so as not to hinder them when carried at the waist on the march. The hilt has no guard ; "bolsters" of metal connect

4872-503: The juvenile quality of his earliest work falls away, and by 1894 his career as a painter can be said to have begun. The academic realism apparent in the works of the mid-1890s is well displayed in The First Communion (1896), a large composition that depicts his sister, Lola. In the same year, at the age of 14, he painted Portrait of Aunt Pepa , a vigorous and dramatic portrait that Juan-Eduardo Cirlot has called "without

4959-524: The masters, and drawing the human body from plaster casts and live models. His son became preoccupied with art to the detriment of his classwork. The family moved to A Coruña in 1891, where his father became a professor at the School of Fine Arts. They stayed for almost four years. On one occasion, the father found his son painting over his unfinished sketch of a pigeon. Observing the precision of his son's technique, an apocryphal story relates, Ruiz felt that

5046-498: The movement, through his experimentation with classicism within the so-called return to order following the war. After acquiring some fame and fortune, Picasso left Olivier for Marcelle Humbert, also known as Eva Gouel . Picasso included declarations of his love for Eva in many Cubist works. Picasso was devastated by her premature death from illness at the age of 30 in 1915. At the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, Picasso

5133-467: The museum's collection to Geneva. The war provided the impetus for Picasso's first overtly political work . He expressed anger and condemnation of Francisco Franco and fascists in The Dream and Lie of Franco (1937), which was produced "specifically for propagandistic and fundraising purposes". This surreal fusion of words and images was intended to be sold as a series of postcards to raise funds for

5220-426: The officials at the academy to allow his son to take an entrance exam for the advanced class. This process often took students a month, but Picasso completed it in a week, and the jury admitted him, at just 13. As a student, Picasso lacked discipline but made friendships that would affect him in later life. His father rented a small room for him close to home so he could work alone, yet he checked up on him numerous times

5307-498: The painting to acquaintances in his studio later that year, the nearly universal reaction was shock and revulsion; Matisse angrily dismissed the work as a hoax. Picasso did not exhibit Les Demoiselles publicly until 1916. Other works from this period include Nude with Raised Arms (1907) and Three Women (1908). Formal ideas developed during this period lead directly into the Cubist period that follows. Analytic cubism (1909–1912)

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5394-422: The painting's disappearance. Synthetic cubism (1912–1919) was a further development of the genre of cubism, in which cut paper fragments – often wallpaper or portions of newspaper pages – were pasted into compositions, marking the first use of collage in fine art. Between 1915 and 1917, Picasso began a series of paintings depicting highly geometric and minimalist Cubist objects, consisting of either

5481-630: The paternal Ruiz. Picasso's Blue Period (1901–1904), characterized by sombre paintings rendered in shades of blue and blue-green only occasionally warmed by other colours, began either in Spain in early 1901 or in Paris in the second half of the year. Many paintings of gaunt mothers with children date from the Blue Period, during which Picasso divided his time between Barcelona and Paris. In his austere use of colour and sometimes doleful subject matter—prostitutes and beggars are frequent subjects—Picasso

5568-424: The plan to marry Picasso to secure the rights of her children as Picasso's legitimate heirs. Picasso had already secretly married Roque, after Gilot had filed for divorce. His strained relationship with Claude and Paloma was never healed. By this time, Picasso had constructed a huge Gothic home, and could afford large villas in the south of France, such as Mas Notre-Dame-de-Vie on the outskirts of Mougins , and in

5655-454: The recently-added novelty No. 13, Le Géant ("the Giant") with its 22 cm blade. There is now a No. 7 round-ended knife without the sharp point, intended for children and others as "My first Opinel". A variety of different Opinels have been offered over the years. A few are sold more for their novelty value than for practical purposes, such as Le Géant . Besides the Slim Effile series and

5742-571: The safety and versatility of the knife by allowing the blade to be locked in the open position. In 2000, the Virobloc locking mechanism was improved to allow locking the blade in either the open or closed position. In 1985 the Victoria and Albert Museum in London selected the Opinel knife as part of an exhibit celebrating the “100 most beautiful products in the world”, featuring the Opinel alongside

5829-422: The simple Virobloc locking mechanism. The locking ring can easily be removed with simple tools for use in countries where locking knives are prohibited; some sources claim that opening the blade with the ring in the locked position causes the ring to pop off; it can be replaced easily later if desired. The No. 8 Couteau du Jardin or Garden Knife uses a folding drop-point blade with a slim, tapered wood handle, while

5916-477: The summer of 1918, Picasso married Olga Khokhlova , a ballerina with Sergei Diaghilev's troupe, for whom Picasso was designing a ballet, Erik Satie's Parade , in Rome; they spent their honeymoon near Biarritz in the villa of glamorous Chilean art patron Eugenia Errázuriz . Khokhlova introduced Picasso to high society, formal dinner parties, and other dimensions of the life of the rich in 1920s Paris. The two had

6003-714: The symbols as they understand them." Guernica was exhibited in July 1937 at the Spanish Pavilion at the Paris International Exposition , and then became the centrepiece of an exhibition of 118 works by Picasso, Matisse , Braque and Henri Laurens that toured Scandinavia and England. After the victory of Francisco Franco in Spain, the painting was sent to the United States to raise funds and support for Spanish refugees. Until 1981 it

6090-443: The thirteen-year-old Picasso had surpassed him, and vowed to give up painting, though paintings by him exist from later years. In 1895, Picasso was traumatized when his seven-year-old sister, Conchita, died of diphtheria . After her death, the family moved to Barcelona , where Ruiz took a position at its School of Fine Arts. Picasso thrived in the city, regarding it in times of sadness or nostalgia as his true home. Ruiz persuaded

6177-505: The time these works were dismissed by most as pornographic fantasies of an impotent old man or the slapdash works of an artist who was past his prime. Only later, after Picasso's death, when the rest of the art world had moved on from abstract expressionism , did the critical community come to see the late works of Picasso as prefiguring Neo-Expressionism . Pablo Picasso died on 8 April 1973 in Mougins , France, from pulmonary edema and

6264-529: The works of El Greco ; elements such as his elongated limbs, arresting colours, and mystical visages are echoed in Picasso's later work. Picasso's training under his father began before 1890. His progress can be traced in the collection of early works now held by the Museu Picasso in Barcelona , which provides one of the most comprehensive extant records of any major artist's beginnings. During 1893

6351-539: Was 59 years old. Picasso remained aloof from the Catalan independence movement during his youth, despite expressing general support and being friendly with activists within it. He did not join the armed forces for any side or country during World War I , the Spanish Civil War , or World War II. As a Spanish citizen living in France, Picasso was under no compulsion to fight against the invading Germans in either world war. In 1940, he applied for French citizenship, but it

6438-495: Was a professor of art at the School of Crafts and a curator of a local museum. Picasso's birth certificate and the record of his baptism include very long names, combining those of various saints and relatives. Ruiz y Picasso were his paternal and maternal surnames, respectively, per Spanish custom. The surname "Picasso" comes from Liguria , a coastal region of north-western Italy. Pablo's maternal great-grandfather, Tommaso Picasso, moved to Spain around 1807. Picasso showed

6525-624: Was arrested and questioned about the theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre . Suspicion for the crime had initially fallen upon Apollinaire due to his links to Géry Pieret, an artist with a history of thefts from the gallery. Apollinaire in turn implicated his close friend Picasso, who had also purchased stolen artworks from the artist in the past. Afraid of a conviction that could result in his deportation to Spain, Picasso denied having ever met Apollinaire. Both were later cleared of any involvement in

6612-607: Was both charlatan and genius. During World War II , Picasso remained in Paris while the Germans occupied the city. Picasso's artistic style did not fit the Nazi ideal of art , so he did not exhibit during this time. He was often harassed by the Gestapo . During one search of his apartment, an officer saw a photograph of the painting Guernica . "Did you do that?" the German asked Picasso. "No," he replied, "You did." Retreating to his studio, he continued to paint, producing works such as

6699-461: Was burned to keep the small room warm. During the first five months of 1901, Picasso lived in Madrid , where he and his anarchist friend Francisco de Asís Soler founded the magazine Arte Joven ( Young Art ), which published five issues. Soler solicited articles and Picasso illustrated the journal, mostly contributing grim cartoons depicting and sympathizing with the state of the poor. The first issue

6786-559: Was commissioned to make a maquette for a huge 50-foot (15 m)-high public sculpture to be built in Chicago, known usually as the Chicago Picasso . He approached the project with a great deal of enthusiasm, designing a sculpture which was ambiguous and somewhat controversial. Picasso said the figure represented the head of an Afghan Hound named Kabul. The sculpture, one of the most recognizable landmarks in downtown Chicago,

6873-454: Was entrusted to the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, as it was Picasso's expressed desire that the painting should not be delivered to Spain until liberty and democracy had been established in the country. Before Guernica , Picasso had never addressed political themes in his art. The politicized nature of the work is largely attributed to his romantic relationship at the time with

6960-491: Was influenced by a trip through Spain and by the suicide of his friend Carles Casagemas . Starting in autumn of 1901, he painted several posthumous portraits of Casagemas culminating in the gloomy allegorical painting La Vie (1903), now in the Cleveland Museum of Art . The same mood pervades the well-known etching The Frugal Repast (1904), which depicts a blind man and a sighted woman, both emaciated, seated at

7047-582: Was living in Avignon . Braque and Derain were mobilized and Apollinaire joined the French artillery, while the Spaniard Juan Gris remained from the Cubist circle. During the war, Picasso was able to continue painting uninterrupted, unlike his French comrades. His paintings became more sombre and his life changed with dramatic consequences. Kahnweiler's contract had terminated on his exile from France. At this point, Picasso's work would be taken on by

7134-508: Was meant to be attached to a key fob or watch chain and used as a tobacco pipe cleaner or nail cleaner, but was judged to be too small. The No. 11 Opinel was discontinued in 1935, its size being considered too similar to Opinels Nos. 10 and 12. With its 8.5 cm blade, the No. 8 Opinel is perhaps the most widely used size, though Nos. 4, 6, and 10 are consistent sellers. There is a considerable difference in size between No. 12 (12 cm blade) and

7221-420: Was published on 31 March 1901, by which time the artist had started to sign his work Picasso . From 1898 he signed his works as "Pablo Ruiz Picasso", then as "Pablo R. Picasso" until 1901. The change does not seem to imply a rejection of the father figure. Rather, he wanted to distinguish himself from others; initiated by his Catalan friends who habitually called him by his maternal surname, much less current than

7308-592: Was refused on the grounds of his "extremist ideas evolving towards communism". This information was not revealed until 2003. At the start of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Picasso was 54 years of age. Soon after hostilities began, the Republicans appointed him "director of the Prado, albeit in absentia", and "he took his duties very seriously", according to John Richardson, supplying the funds to evacuate

7395-524: Was reproduced for the first time in Europe in the same issue. Yet Picasso exhibited Cubist works at the first Surrealist group exhibition in 1925; the concept of 'psychic automatism in its pure state' defined in the Manifeste du surréalisme never appealed to him entirely. He did at the time develop new imagery and formal syntax for expressing himself emotionally, "releasing the violence, the psychic fears and

7482-456: Was to become a lifelong friend and rival. The Steins introduced him to Claribel Cone and her sister Etta, who were American art collectors; they also began to acquire Picasso's and Matisse's paintings. Eventually, Leo Stein moved to Italy. Michael and Sarah Stein became patrons of Matisse, while Gertrude Stein continued to collect Picassos. In 1907, Picasso joined an art gallery that had recently been opened in Paris by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler ,

7569-430: Was unveiled in 1967. Picasso refused to be paid $ 100,000 for it, donating it to the people of the city. Picasso's final works were a mixture of styles, his means of expression in constant flux until the end of his life. Devoting his full energies to his work, Picasso became more daring, his works more colourful and expressive, and from 1968 to 1971 he produced a torrent of paintings and hundreds of copperplate etchings. At

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