Picasso was a technically skilled draftsman—so why did he choose to take his forms apart?
Picasso
Ostensibly a landscape, this painting has little to do with nature.
Pablo Picasso, The Reservoir, Horta de Ebro
Picasso represents a guitar in three dimensions, but he doesn’t actually make one.
Pablo Picasso, Guitar
Paintings of this size had historically exalted war, but this one suggests that war is anything but heroic.
Pablo Picasso, Guernica
Introducing mechanically reproduced images here undermines Picasso’s vocation as a painter—so why does he do it?
Pablo Picasso, Still Life with Chair Caning
Picasso loved the magic of illusionism—but here, he shatters it.
Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
Braque hated Picasso’s Demoiselles when he saw it. But he couldn’t get it out of his head… or off of his canvas.
Inventing Cubism
Picasso began his love affair with Gertrude Stein’s bank account when he learned of her support for Matisse.
Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Gertrude Stein
For Picasso, the road to fame started young… but before he could get too far, he had to unlearn a lot about art.