When Pablo Ruiz Picasso was born to an artist father on the October 25th, 1881, he was expected to take up the tools of his father’s trade – but no one ever expected this dreamy-eyed boy from Malaga, Spain to become one of the most famous artists of all time. He emerged from obscurity and helped changed the art world forever with his modern approaches to painting, collage, sculptures and drawing.

Contrary to some beliefs, Picasso was not an ‘abstract’ artist; he was defined as a ‘modern’ artist, due to his involvement in the modernism movement of the early 20th century. Still, Picasso had to go through multiple phases on his journey towards immortal, artistic fame. Though he was painting and illustrating well before the dawn of the 1900s, his true career started with the beginning of his ‘Blue Period’ in 1901. During this time, nearly everything painted by Picasso was heavily swayed towards shades of blue and green. This shifted several years later when he entered the ‘Rose Period’ – two years where he, instead, used shades of pink, red, orange and related colors.

Picasso then met his fate and his partner in innovative crime, Georges Braque, as the two developed a new, modern art style – Cubism. The basic premise of Cubism was in taking images and forms and breaking them down into geometric shapes. Soon, Picasso was expanding on this theme by using a collage form of art, which incorporated different types of cut paper into his images. Some of Picasso’s most famous works include:

• Three Musicians, referring to both an oil painting and a collage image, completed in 1921. Both images include a monk, a harlequin, and pierrot playing different instruments.
• Les Demoiselle d’Avignon, an early Cubist oil painting which Picasso composed in 1907. It depicts five prostitutes, whose bodies are diminished into simple, slightly angular shapes.

Unfortunately, Picasso was liked far less by his personal relations than by his adoring art fans. The artist was known to have an unpleasant demeanor, a disrespectful attitude towards women, and questionable ideals – especially in the aftermath of World War II. Picasso was caught in a loveless marriage that produced one son, Paulo, and a long-lasting affair (one of many) that resulted in his daughter, Maia. Despite his complicated life, Picasso lived to the ripe old age of 91, and died on April 8th, 1973 from a heart attack.