Pablo Picasso was born

Pablo Picasso was born on October 25, 1881, in Málaga, in the Andalusian south of Spain. His father was an art teacher, and the boy’s gift surfaced almost absurdly early; he was sketching with confidence as a child and training in academic studios while still a teenager.

Picasso soon outran every tradition he was taught. Settling in Paris, he passed through his somber Blue Period and tender Rose Period before, around 1907, helping detonate the most radical idea in modern art. With Georges Braque, he broke objects into faceted, overlapping planes and co-founded Cubism — a way of seeing that fractured a single viewpoint into many at once.

One restless lifetime; an estimated twenty thousand works across paint, sculpture, ceramics, and collage.

From the anti-war howl of Guernica to his constant reinventions, Picasso dominated the century’s art like no other figure, working prolifically until his death in 1973.