Pablo Picasso remains one of the most defining figures of modern art, endlessly redefining the relationship between form, image, and medium. Across painting, drawing, sculpture, and ceramics, his practice challenged traditional hierarchies and expanded the possibilities of artistic expression. His body of work continues to shape contemporary understandings of the creative gesture, artistic authority, and visual language.
Pablo Ruiz Picasso was born on October 25, 1881, in Málaga, Andalusia, and passed away on April 8, 1973, in Mougins, in the south of France. A painter, draftsman, sculptor, and printmaker, he spent most of his life in France while remaining deeply rooted in his Spanish identity. An insatiable experimenter, he mastered all mediums and revolutionized the visual language of the 20th century. Co-founder of Cubism alongside Georges Braque, he also maintained close ties with the Surrealist movement. His political engagement would permanently mark both his work and his public persona.
The sheer scale of his artistic output is staggering: nearly 50,000 works in total, including paintings, sculptures, ceramics, drawings, prints, and lithographs. Two works in particular embody his genius: Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), a foundational milestone of Proto-Cubism, and Guernica (1937), a searing response to the bombing of the Basque town on April 26, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War.