Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso was a Spanish artist who lived from 1881 to 1973. He is one of the most famous painters of the twentieth century. He helped invent a new style of art called Cubism, which changed how artists everywhere thought about painting. Over his long life, Picasso made more than 20,000 works of art, including paintings, drawings, sculptures, and pottery.

Picasso was born in the city of Málaga, in southern Spain. His father was an art teacher. According to family stories, Pablo could draw before he could talk. By the time he was 13, he was already painting better than most adults. His father is said to have handed over his own brushes and given up painting, because his young son had passed him.

As a young man, Picasso moved to Paris, France. Paris was the center of the art world at the time. His early work went through different "periods," each named for the colors he used most. During his Blue Period, he painted sad scenes in shades of blue and gray. During his Rose Period, he switched to warmer pinks and oranges, often painting circus performers.

Then, around 1907, Picasso and his friend Georges Braque started something brand new. They began breaking objects and people into flat shapes, like puzzle pieces, and showing them from many sides at once. A face might have one eye in front and another in profile. A guitar might look smashed and rebuilt on the canvas. This style was called Cubism. At first, people thought it was strange or even ugly. Today, it is seen as one of the biggest changes in art history.

One of Picasso's most powerful paintings is "Guernica." He painted it in 1937, after warplanes bombed a small Spanish town of the same name during the Spanish Civil War. The painting is huge, more than 25 feet wide, and is filled with screaming horses, broken people, and a single light bulb shaped like an eye. It has no color, only black, white, and gray. Many people call it one of the greatest anti-war paintings ever made.

Picasso kept working almost every day until he died at age 91. He never settled into one style. He kept changing, trying new ideas, and surprising people. Today his paintings hang in museums all over the world. Some have sold for more than 100 million dollars, making them among the most valuable paintings ever bought. He once said, "Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up."