Petit visage barbu (A.R. 557), 1968 - 1969

Pablo Picasso was an influential artist whose oeuvre is one of the most fascinating pieces of artwork of the 20th-century. It constituted over 20,000 paintings, drawings, sculptures, costume designs, ceramics, and prints. His influence contributed to the rise of Expressionism and Surrealism, inspired by Iberian and African art. Surrealism was a 20th-century art and culture movement that sought to express the creative potential of one’s unconscious mind. He also pioneered cubism and the conveyance of three-dimensional space by fracturing the two-dimensional picture plane. 

Early Life
Picasso was born an artist. According to his mother, he showed a passion for drawing early when he said "piz, piz," a shortened version of the Spanish word "pencil." Having noted his 7-year old son’s passion for painting, his father trained him on oil painting and figure drawing. On one occasion, he demonstrated his skill when his father found him completing an unfinished sketch of a pigeon. At the age of thirteen, Picasso had refined his skill improved on this precision and drawing technique that he surpassed his father. This led to his father giving up on painting.

Fame 
Picasso’s revolutionary art made him one of the influential and greatest artists of the 20th century. Some of his notable contributions to the art industry include:
• Co-founded the Cubisim movement
• Invented the constructed sculpture
• Co-invented the collage 
• Helped explore and develop a wide variety of creative and radical art styles
• Defined the revolutionary and innovative developments in plastic arts
These are some of the significant contributions by Picasso to the art industry in the 20th century.

Personal Life and Death
Picasso was born on 25th October 1881 in Málag, Southern Spain. He married his first wife, Olga Khokhlova, in 1918 and separated in 1955. Picasso had affairs with many women, including Marie-Thérèse Walter (1927–1935), Dora Maar (1935–1943), and Françoise Gilot (1943–1953), among others. He had four children named Paulo, Claude, Maya, and Paloma. He got his second wife, Jacqueline Roque, in 1961 and sustained his marriage until his death on 8th April 1973 in Mougins, France. Paloma and Claude did not attend their father’s funeral as Jacqueline prohibited them. In 1986, Jacqueline Roque committed suicide by a gunshot. She was interred next to her Picasso’s grave in Château of Vauvenargues outside the town of Aix-en-Provence.