Pablo Picasso: 1881-1973: Artist Biography

Pablo Picasso: 1881-1973: Artist.

Pablo Picasso was without a doubt the most talked-about visual artist of the twentieth century. For some art lovers, he was the greatest of them all; for others, he was an over-sexed self-promoting novelty act who produced too much art too quickly. But even casual museumgoers could not only recognize Picasso's work but also place it within one of the well-known subdivisions of his output—his Blue and Rose (some reports also refer to this period as Pink) periods, his Primitivist and Cubist periods, and so on. Picasso's works became part of popular culture. He lived and worked for a long time, turning the art world on its head several times with major works and putting his own spin on many of the major artistic movements of his time. For more than one observer, Picasso exemplified the human spirit of the twentieth century in general—questing, striving for meaning, destructive of old rules, and touched by an unprecedented level of violence.