Q 01/05

In which Spanish city was Picasso born in 1881?

A) Málaga

B) Barcelona

C) Seville

D) Madrid

Answer · why

A) Málaga

Málaga. He lived in the Andalusian port until 1891, when his father took a teaching job in A Coruña and moved the family to Spain's far north-west.

Q 02/05

A family story says Picasso's first words were 'piz, piz', short for the Spanish word for what?

A) Paintbrush

B) Paper

C) Pencil

D) Palette

Answer · why

C) Pencil

Pencil. 'Piz' was a toddler's attempt at lápiz, in a story the family liked to tell, and his father, a drawing teacher, became his first teacher.

Q 03/05

Pablo Ruiz signed his paintings 'Picasso', a surname he got from whom?

A) His father

B) His mother

C) His godfather

D) His grandmother

Answer · why

B) His mother

His mother. Spanish custom gave him both parents' surnames, Ruiz and Picasso; he came to prefer hers, and by late 1901 he had dropped Ruiz from his si...

Q 04/05

Legend says Picasso's father, an art teacher, did what after seeing his teenage son's skill?

A) Burned the boy's canvases

B) Sent him to a seminary

C) Signed the work himself

D) Gave up painting

Answer · why

D) Gave up painting

Gave up painting. In the usual telling he handed the boy his own brushes and palette, but it is only a legend; he went on teaching drawing in Barcelon...

Q 05/05

Picasso's daughter Paloma made her name designing jewellery for which company?

A) Cartier

B) Bulgari

C) Van Cleef & Arpels

D) Tiffany & Co.

Answer · why

D) Tiffany & Co.

Tiffany & Co. When her father died in 1973 she put her design career on hold to help catalogue the work he left, and only in 1980 did the jeweller bri...