Spanish artist Pablo Picasso was born in Malaga on the 12th of October 1881, although he spent the vast majority of his life living and working in France. Picasso pursued a number of artistic fields, widely being regarded as successful in all of them. Although he may commonly be best known for his paintings, Picasso was also a sculptor, ceramicist, stage designer, printmaker, poet, and playwright. He is often regarded as one of the most influential artists who were active during the 20th century. Picasso co-founded a number of movements with other artists, such as the Cubist movement and collage techniques.
Picasso began to display his talent for art at a young age, although at that time his work tended toward naturalism. His style began to change during the early 20th century, when he started to become more experimental with his art, incorporating different theories and techniques into his work. Fellow artist Henri Matisse has been credited for inspiring Picasso to explore more radical art styles, leading to the two artists becoming informal rivals and both being heralded by critics as headers in
the modern art movement.
As with many artists, Picasso’s work can be divided into a number of different periods. The main differentiators being his earlier work up to approximately 1920 being in a neoclassical style, and his later work being a surreal style. Although Picasso began to blend his styles toward the end of his life, most of his work remains exclusively in one category or another. Due to the number of different styles that Picasso was able to work in during his lifetime, he was a prolific producer of art. This helped him to amass great personal fortune during his life, with some of his pieces of work being valued at over a hundred million dollars today.
As was common in Spain during Picasso’s time, his entire name is long by modern standards, as he was baptized Pablo Diego Jose Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno Maria de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santisima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso, with most of the names honouring relatives of Picasso’s and various saints. He was also the first child of his family, soon followed by his Sister, Lola. Although he was baptized Catholic, as was common in Spain at that time, he later stated that he was an atheist.