Pablo Ruiz Picasso, born in 1881, was a Spanish painter, draftsman, and sculptor. An artist who used all mediums for his work, he is considered one of the founders of Cubism. Picasso painted his very first paintings at the age of eight.
From 1901 to 1904, deeply affected by the suicide of his friend Carlos Casagemas, Picasso entered his Blue Period, in which he addressed themes of melancholy, old age, and death, predominantly using shades of blue. This was followed by his Rose Period in 1905, marked by themes of love and renewed joy.
From 1907 to 1914, he worked with Georges Braque on a series of paintings that would lay the foundations for the Cubist movement, with Les Demoiselles d'Avignon being the iconic work. The year 1925 marked a radical break in the painter's production.
Tempted for a time by Surrealism, political events caught up with him: he became alarmed by the rise of fascism in Europe, particularly in Spain. The painting Guernica (1937) was created in response to the massacre carried out by Franco’s troops in a village of the same name. The work quickly became a symbol of the Resistance. After World War II, his paintings became more optimistic and were inspired by children's drawings. Often regarded as the greatest artist of the 20th century for both his technical and formal contributions as well as his political stances, there is no doubt that Pablo Picasso revolutionized art and the way we perceive it. He passed away in 1973.
