Pablo Picasso
Spanish·1881–1973
Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) dominated 20th-century art like no other figure. Born in Málaga, Spain, he showed extraordinary talent from childhood, entering the Royal Academy of San Fernando at sixteen. Finding academic teaching tedious, he spent his time in cafés, streets, and the Prado, absorbing Velázquez and Goya.
His career moved through distinct phases: the melancholy Blue Period (1901–1904), the warmer Rose Period (1904–1906), the revolutionary Cubism he co-invented with Georges Braque (1907–1914), and continuing experimentation until his death. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) shattered traditional perspective. Guernica (1937) turned the bombing of a Basque town into the century's most powerful anti-war statement.
Picasso worked in painting, sculpture, printmaking, ceramics, and theater design, producing over 20,000 works. He lived mainly in France from 1904, settling in the South of France after World War II. His personal life was as turbulent as his art, involving multiple wives, mistresses, and children. He died at Mougins in 1973 at ninety-one, still working. His legacy fills the Museum of Modern Art in New York (called "the house that Pablo built"), the Musée Picasso in Paris, the Museo Picasso Málaga, and the Museo Reina Sofía, where Guernica hangs.
