A Small List of Great Artists – PABLO PICASSO (Spanish, 1881-1973)

PABLO PICASSO (Spanish, 1881-1973). Art before Picasso, and art after were completely different beasts, and Picasso was responsible for the changing of its course for the entirety of the 20^th century. He was a child prodigy who painted superbly realist, naturalistic works. Spending most of his adult life in France, he went on to create, co-found, and experiment in perhaps more art movements and styles than any other artist before or since. He co-founded Cubism, collage, and constructed sculpture, made major contributions to Symbolism and Surrealism, and experimented in expressionism, monochromatic palettes, primitivism, abstraction, and Neoclassiscism. There are currently over 29,000 catalogued Picasso artworks, and he received universal acclaim and an immense fortune in his lifetime. The female form was an imminently recurring theme of his work, with many of his lovers serving as his emotional and erotic muses. He was a tempestuous womanizer and misogynist who had several mistresses in addition to his wives and partners, and two of them committed suicide, while others had nervous breakdowns. He had four children by three women, one who died of alcoholism.