365 Days of Art: October 25 – Picasso is Born, Krasner and Pollock Marry, Breton Excommunicates Matta for Affair with Gorky’s Wife

Pablo Picasso, Woman in White, 1923

October 25, 1881

Picasso is born. Two fun facts about Picasso: his father was a drawing professor, and while most people think he couldn’t draw because of his focus on abstraction and Cubism, Picasso himself was excellent at drawing.

Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock c. 1949

October 25, 1945

Lee Krasner and Jackson Pollock marry.

Matta and Breton c. 1939

October 25, 1948

André Breton excommunicates Matta from the Surrealist movement, via a letter to the group, condemning him for “moral ignominy and intellectual disqualification.” Underlying this decision is Breton’s conviction that Matta had driven Arshile Gorky to suicide by sleeping with his wife, Mougouch.