Pablo Picasso

Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, <a href="/facts/Printmaker/9maDzuae">printmaker</a>, <a href="/facts/Ceramic_art/W7mmjJ3m">ceramicist</a>, and <a href="/facts/Scenic_design/urbg2QSq">theatre designer</a> who spent most of his adult life in <a href="/facts/France/CxIeIKM3">France</a>. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the <a href="/facts/Cubist/wmpXU7Tn">Cubist</a> movement, the invention of <a href="/facts/Assemblage_(art)/hyCIhSnr">constructed sculpture</a>, the co-invention of <a href="/facts/Collage/RUxSBkln">collage</a>, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. Among his most famous works are the <a href="/facts/Proto-Cubism/Hnxq43yg">proto-Cubist</a> <a href="/facts/Les_Demoiselles_d%2527Avignon/m4YN2n40">Les Demoiselles d'Avignon</a> (1907) and the anti-war painting <a href="/facts/Guernica_(Picasso)/tK6bHRRp">Guernica</a> (1937), a dramatic portrayal of the <a href="/facts/Bombing_of_Guernica/Sb74gMJv">bombing of Guernica</a> by German and Italian air forces during the <a href="/facts/Spanish_Civil_War/YykcMvC5">Spanish Civil War</a>.
Beginning his formal training under his father <a href="/facts/Jos%25C3%25A9_Ruiz_y_Blasco/UHIgx81A">José Ruiz y Blasco</a> aged seven, Picasso demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent from a young age, painting in a naturalistic manner through his childhood and adolescence. During the first decade of the 20th century, his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas. After 1906, the <a href="/facts/Fauvist/HTGTXBLl">Fauvist</a> work of the older artist <a href="/facts/Henri_Matisse/PsUTqHjP">Henri Matisse</a> motivated Picasso to explore more radical styles, beginning a fruitful rivalry between the two artists, who subsequently were often paired by critics as the leaders of <a href="/facts/Modern_art/8JrMbrVA">modern art</a>.
Picasso's output, especially in his early career, is often periodized. While the names of many of his later periods are debated, the most commonly accepted periods in his work are the <a href="/facts/Picasso%2527s_Blue_Period/XEFXKLlu">Blue Period</a> (1901–1904), the <a href="/facts/Picasso%2527s_Rose_Period/rhM67G9k">Rose Period</a> (1904–1906), the <a href="/facts/Picasso%2527s_African_Period/rM5GqFdM">African-influenced Period</a> (1907–1909), Analytic <a href="/facts/Cubism/wmpXU7Tn">Cubism</a> (1909–1912), and Synthetic Cubism (1912–1919), also referred to as the <a href="/facts/Crystal_Cubism/jgGdyYh2">Crystal period</a>. Much of Picasso's work of the late 1910s and early 1920s is in a <a href="/facts/Neoclassicism/uWYVqQMj">neoclassical</a> style, and his work in the mid-1920s often has characteristics of <a href="/facts/Surrealism/VUJpoo6c">Surrealism</a>. His later work often combines elements of his earlier styles.
Exceptionally prolific throughout the course of his long life, Picasso achieved universal renown and immense fortune for his revolutionary artistic accomplishments, and became one of the best-known figures in <a href="/facts/20th-century_art/AtNJDJS2">20th-century art</a>.

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Pablo Picasso