Pablo Picasso was one of the greatest artists of the 20th century, and was the co-founder of the Cubist artistic movement. Picasso was born in Malaga, Spain in 1881 to a middle-class family. He showed a talent for art at a young age, and received formal training from his father, who was an artist and museum curator.
In 1895, Picasso's sister died of diphtheria, and the family moved to Barcelona, where his father began working at the Barcelona School of Fine Arts. Picasso's father then persuaded the Academy to allow the 13-year-old Picasso to take the entrance exam, and he was admitted only one week into the often month-long admission program. Picasso's father then sent him to the Royal Academy in Madrid, but he stopped attending classes shortly after enrollment, and then moved between Paris and Spain, often living in poverty and desperation.
He began experimenting with a number of new artistic styles after finally settling in Paris in 1904, and met Fernand Olivier, a bohemian artist who appears in many paintings during Picasso's Rose period. Picasso then joined a gallery in Paris where he met a fellow artist named Georges Braque. Picasso worked closely with Braque and produced his revolutionary work, La Demoiselle d'Avignon, which introduced the new style of Cubism to the world. Picasso then began attaching cloth, newspaper and other items to his paintings, and created the collage style.
He then moved from style to style, and in 1918 married Olga Koklova, who he met while designing a ballet in Rome. Koklova introduced Picasso to high society, but this clashed with Picasso's bohemian lifestyle, and they legally separated until Koklova's death in 1955. After the outbreak of World War II, Picasso remained in German-occupied Paris, and continued to paint, but did not exhibit during this time, as he believed that his paintings would not fit with the Nazi ideals of perfect art. He produced works such as Still Life with a Guitar, and the Charnel House during this time. He also produced his famous work Guernica and several sculpture pieces during the Spanish Civil War. Picasso embarked on many affairs during his life and fathered several children by his various young mistresses.
He died in 1973 in Mougan, France, a worldwide celebrity for a legacy of an estimated 50,000 works including paintings, sculptures, ceramics, tapestries and rugs.