Pablo Picasso

The great genius of modern art

Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973) was a painter, graphic artist and sculptor and is considered the most important artist of the 20th century. As the founder of Cubism and a pioneer of Modernism, he influenced subsequent generations of artists like no other. His oeuvre comprises over 50,000 paintings, drawings, prints, collages, sculptures and ceramics and forms a significant foundation stone for modern art.

Discovering and overcoming Cubism

With Georges Braque, Picasso searched intensively for a new art movement and occupied himself with original African folk art. Based on this, he developed the style of Cubism and initial studies for his key work “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”. After the brief but intense Cubist heyday, Picasso explored new genres and media. He revived classicism and created many drawings and etchings, explored surrealism and Dadaism and discovered pottery and ceramic painting when he moved to the French commune of Vallauris.

Picasso as a graphic genius

From the mid-1940s, Picasso finally came into contact with printing techniques such as stone lithography and linocut for the first time. From the very beginning, he was enthusiastic about the numerous possibilities and his style rapidly became more reduced, sketchy and process-oriented. The artist was particularly taken with lithography and produced many series of works and original prints in Fernand Mourlot’s Parisian printing workshop.

Picasso changed his style again with his graphic works and developed his typical Picasso style with distorted faces and childlike elements.

Until his death in 1973, Picasso created new works almost daily and left behind what is probably the most extensive artistic oeuvre of all time.