Things you may not know about Picasso
The name Picasso was brought to life between 1897 and 1899. This is the period when Pablo Ruiz decided to change his name. The young painter ceased to sign his paintings with the name of his father and chose to finally adopt his mother’s name. Thus, he opted not to use any of his fourteen names: Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz.
The decision to use the Picasso name was thought over a long period of time. He experimented with variations of his maternal family name, by signing his drawings with “Picaz”, “Picasa”, sometimes accompanied by the undeniable nickname “Io”. The painter claimed that his father’s name was too common in Spain, and the desire of changing it came through the impulse that the exotic sounds of his mother’s name gave to him, marked by doubling the letter S. “Even the names Matisse, Poussin and Rousseau have the letter S doubled “, Picasso confessed to his photographer Brassai.
There are other speculations, as to what motivated Picasso to adopt his mother’s surname: It was said that Pablo changed his father name out of superstition. His father, also a painter, had not been successful and had a mediocre career. Thus, the young painter wanted to drive away this bad luck, once he became aware of his unmatched talent.
Whatever the reason for his choice, the name Picasso eventually became one of the most dominant in the art world, and in particular, is attributed to Cubism. The name’s destiny was to become the most important brand for twentieth-century art.