Pablo Picasso

Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is renowned for co-founding the Cubist movement, inventing constructed sculpture, co-inventing collage, and exploring a wide range of styles that helped shape the course of modern art. Among his most iconic works are the proto-Cubist Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) and the anti-war masterpiece Guernica (1937), a powerful response to the bombing of Guernica by German and Italian air forces during the Spanish Civil War.

Picasso demonstrated exceptional artistic talent from an early age, painting in a naturalistic style throughout his childhood and adolescence. In the early 20th century, his work evolved as he experimented with new theories, techniques, and ideas. After 1906, the Fauvist work of Henri Matisse inspired Picasso to explore more radical approaches, sparking a dynamic rivalry between the two artists—one that would ultimately define them as leading figures of modern art.