Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1974) was a spanish artist whose name is almost synonymouswith 20th century art. No artist was ever as famous as Picasso was in his ownlifetime, or has been since.

The controversies over his personality, arrogance, affairs with youngerwomen, and unwillingness to be classified in the art world only added to hisfame. And without a doubt Picasso was a true genius - able to create incrediblycomplex and powerful paintings with a few strokes of the brush, or capture theessence of someone's face from many different angles all at once. Most of allPicasso was an individualist. He was a founder of art movements,such as Cubism,but paradoxically refused to do what other people did, and whenever the artworld caught up with him and thought they knew what to expect, he would changecompletely and surprise them.

A child prodigy, Picasso was as skilled in realist portraits as inexpressionist symbolism. He was also incredibly proficient, especially near theend of his life, when he would often complete three paintings in one day. It wasas if he believed he could delay his death through painting. At the time many ofthese works were dismissed, in the words of Douglas Cooper, as "the incoherentscribblings of a frenetic old man". It wasn't until long after picasso's deaththat critics took a new look at his later works and realized that Picasso hadinvented neo-expressionism and was, as usual, decades ahead of his time.