Interesting Facts About Pablo Picasso

1. Picasso's Full Name Has 23 Words
Picasso was baptized Pablo Diego Jose Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Maria de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santisima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruiz y Picasso. He was named after various saints and relatives. The "Picasso" is actually from his mother, Maria Picasso y Lopez. His father is named Jose Ruiz Blasco.

2. When He Was Born, The Midwife Thought He Was Stillborn
Picasso had such a difficult birth and was such a weak baby that when he was born, the midwife thought that he was stillborn so she left him on a table to attend his mother. It was his uncle, a doctor named Don Salvador, that saved him:

'Doctors at that time,' he told Antonina Vallentin, 'used to smoke big cigars, and my uncle was no exception. When he saw me lying there he blew smoke into my face. To this I immediately reacted with a grimace and a bellow of fury'" 

 

3. Picasso's First Word: Pencil
It's like Picasso was born an artist: his first word was "piz," short of lapiz the Spanish word for 'pencil.' His father Ruiz, an artist and art professor, gave him a formal education in art starting from the age of 7. By 13, Ruiz vowed to give up painting as he felt that Pablo had surpassed him.

4. Pablo's First Drawing
At the tender young age of 9, Picasso completed his first painting: Le picador, a man riding a horse in a bullfight.

His first major painting, an "academic" work is First Communion, featuring a portrait of his father, mother, and younger sister kneeling before an altar. Picasso was 15 when he finished it.

5. Picasso was a Terrible Student
No doubt about it, Picasso was brilliant: artistically, he was years ahead of his classmates who were all five to six years older than him. But Picasso chafed at being told what to do and he was often thrown into "detention":

"For being a bad student I was banished to the 'calaboose' - a bare cell with whitewashed walls and a bench to sit on. I liked it there, because I took along a sketch pad and drew incessantly ... I could have stayed there forever drawing without stopping" 

6. Picasso's First Job
Picasso signed his first contract in Paris with art dealer Pere Menach, who agreed to pay him 150 francs per month (about US$750 today).

7. Did Picasso Steal the Mona Lisa?
Actually no, but in 1911, when the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre, the police took in Picasso's friend, the poet Guillaume Apollinaire. Apollinaire fingered Picasso as a suspect, so the police hauled him in for questioning. Both were later released.

8. Cubism: Full of Little Cubes
In 1909, Picasso and French artist Georges Braque co-founded an art movement known as cubism. Actually, it was a French art critic Louis Vauxcelles who first called it "bizarre cubiques" or cubism, after noting that Picasso and Braque's paintings are "full of little cubes."

9. Picasso was a Playboy
Being a famous artist certainly helped Picasso get the girl. Girls, in fact - many, many girls. Here's a short list of known wives and lovers of Picasso

•  Fernande Olivier (Picasso's first love, she was 18?; he was 23)
•  Marcelle Humbert AKA Eva Gouel (she was 27, Picasso was 31)
•  Gaby Lespinasse (he was 34, I don't know how old Gaby was, but she was young, that's for sure!)
•  Olga Khokhlova (Picasso's first wife; she was 26 and he was 36 when they met)
•  Marie-Therese Walter (she was 17, he was 46) 
•  Dora Maar (she was 29, Picasso was 55)
•  Francoise Gilot (she was 21 when she met Picasso, who was 61)
•  Genevieve Laporte (one of Picasso's last lovers. She was in her mid-twenties and a French model of Picasso, who was in his seventies when the affair started)
•  Jacqueline Roque (who became Picasso's second wife. She was 27 and he was 79)

Marie-Therese Walter was Picasso's model for Le Reve. In 2006, casino magnate Steve Wynn agreed to sell the painting for $139 million, but accidentally put his elbow through the canvas the day before the sale was to be completed!

10. Picasso's Car
Okay, it's not exactly his car, but I couldn't resist. Last year, 44-year-old mechanic Andy Saunders of Dorset, England, spent six months converting his old Citroen 2CV into a cubist work inspired by Pablo Picasso!

Saunders named his car Picasso's Citroen, which is much better looking than the ho-hum

Source: www.neatorama.com (Alex Santoso)

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Interesting Facts About Culinary Arts

By Serena Makofsky
People who work in food preparation know that culinary skills must be practiced and refined, making it more of an art form than a mere hobby or a task. A master chef endeavors to not only stimulate the palate, but also the senses of smell and sight. There are many compelling facts and bits of trivia regarding the study and practice of the culinary arts.

History
Learning the culinary arts was once the work of apprenticeship, with daughters learning recipes from mothers, and traditional recipes passed on via oral history. It was not until the year 1800 that the first academic program in the culinary arts opened for business. The Boston Cooking School was popular, drawing an international student body. One of its most famous students was Fannie Merrit Farmer, who published the world's first cookbook in 1896. "The Boston Cooking School Cookbook" is still a reference work for students of culinary arts today. The first televised cooking show was presided over by James Beard, airing in 1946. His illustrious work earned him the moniker "dean of American cookery," bestowed upon him by "The New York Times."

Types
People who work in the culinary arts often aspire to positions such as executive chef or sous chef. But there are plenty of other positions in the field, such as the saucier, who oversees sauces and gravies with a chemist-like precision; the garde manager, who may be responsible for all cold foods and often can integrate leftover ingredients into new dishes; pastry chefs, a major responsibility that often entails overseeing a whole pastry staff; and a sommelier, who is paid to professionally wine taste and share expertise with patrons. Less chef-oriented positions include dining room service, food and beverage inventory specialists, restaurant consultants, salespeople, food writers, food critics, food stylists, food photographers and research and development. Others may opt to train other chefs and enter into teaching. Finally, there are those who are entrepreneurs and decide to open their own restaurant or catering service.

Significance
The culinary arts are an object of public fascination. Celebrity chefs and foodies such as Rachel Ray and Rick Bayless tour the world's cuisines, while the iron chefs demonstrate their artistry in a live, timed competition. Movies and novels such as "Like Water for Chocolate," "Heartburn," "The Wedding Feast," "Cocolat" and "Babette's Feast" reflect the seductive power of beautifully prepared food. The culinary arts even has its own cable television channel, The Food Network.

Considerations
A student of culinary arts does not just enter the kitchen chopping. Typical core coursework includes practicing the fundamentals of cooking (yes, chopping), researching theory, learning sanitary practices, preparing simple cold dishes and composing soups and sauces before ever learning how to make an entree. Advanced skills are required for classes such as baking, pastry creation, nutrition, menu planning, international cuisine, catering and the technology of preserving products. This last course inspires some amount of controversy, because both consumers and creators of food have divergent opinions on the incorporation of pre-prepared foods. Two of the more entertaining courses are the art of working with chocolate and sugar and wine appreciation.

Expert Insight
An examination of culinary arts would not be complete without mentioning its patron saint, Julia Child, who first made cooking history with her 1961 book "Mastering the Art of French Cooking." Her radio show and, later, her television program, "The French Chef" were enormously popular and introduced the public to revolutionary approaches in cookery. She had strong opinions about her craft, commenting "Non-cooks think it's silly to invest two hours' work in two minutes' enjoyment; but if cooking is evanescent, so is the ballet."