DECONSTRUCTING PICASSO
STROKES OF GENIUS
From his early childhood years sketching in
the dirt to his final hours at age 91, Pablo
Picasso was devoted to mastering his deeply
personal art. He’s considered one of the most
influential artists of the 20th century, and his
work continues to be studied for its meaning
and celebrated for its creativity. His subject
matter and style, inspired by his many lovers
and by other artists, were ever changing.
Picasso’s work is loosely divided here into
14 distinct phases, coupled with the
artist’s own words.
MASTER OF MANY FORMS
Picasso is most famous for his thousands
of paintings, but he also created other
types of art, including costume design
and ballet sets.
28,743 CATALOGUED ARTWORKS
Drawings
Paintings
Engravings
Ceramics
Uncategorized
Watercolours
Lithographs
Guaches
Sculptures
Pastels
Collages
Photographs
12,916
4,530
3,194
1,685
1,660
1,039
992
864
843
363
333
324
“When I was a child, my mother said
to me, ‘If you become a soldier, you’ll
be a general. If you become a monk,
you’ll end up as the pope!’ Instead, I
became a painter and wound up
as Picasso.”
SCIENCE ET CHARITÉ (1897)
“I am not in favor of following any
determined school because that
only brings about similarity among
adherents.”
LE MOULIN DE LA GALETTE (1900)
“I just painted the images that
rose before my eyes. It is for other
people to find hidden meanings
in them.”
LA VIE (1903)
“When it is finished, [a picture] still
goes on changing, according to the
state of mind of whoever is looking
at it. A picture lives a life like a living
creature, undergoing the changes
imposed on us by our life from day
to day. This is natural enough, as the
picture lives only through the man
who is looking at it.”
LA FAMILLE DE SALTIMBANQUES
(LES BATELEURS) (1905)
“I never do a painting as a work of
art. All of them are researches. I
search incessantly, and there is a
logical sequence in all this research.”
AUTOPORTRAIT À LA
PALETTE (1906)
“Painting isn’t an aesthetic oper-
ation; it’s a form of magic designed
as a mediator between this strange,
hostile world and us, a way of seeing
power by giving form to our terrors
as well as to our desires.”
LES DEMOISELLES
D’AVIGNON (1907)
“A picture used to be a sum of
additions. With me, a picture is
a sum of destructions.”
PORTRAIT D’AMBROISE
VOLLARD (1910)
“I have never made trials or exper-
iments … Whenever I had something
to say, I have said it in the manner in
which I have felt it ought to be said.
Different motives invariably require
different methods of expression.”
NATURE MORTE À LA CHAISE CANNÉE (1912)
“In my opinion, to search means
nothing in painting. To find is
the thing.”
LA FLÛTE DE PAN (1923)
“I have reached the stage where
the movement of my thought
interests me more than the
thought itself.”
LES TROIS DANSEUSES
(LA DANSE) (1925)
“Artists who live and work with spiritual values
cannot and should not remain indifferent to a
conflict in which the highest values of humanity
and civilisation are at stake.”
GUERNICA (1937)
“A work of art must not be some-
thing that leaves a man unmoved,
something he passes by with a
casual glance. It has to make him
react, feel strongly, start creating
too, if only in his imagination.”
NATURE MORTE AU
CRÂNE DE BOEUF (1942)
“Me, I always seek a likeness … A
painter must observe nature but
never confuse it with painting. It
can only be translated into
painting through signs.”
PAYSAGE MÉDITERRANÉEN (1952)
When asked what his favourite
period of his career was, Picasso
answered: “The next one.”
TÊTE (AUTOPORTRAIT)
(1972)
RYAN MORRIS, EVE CONANT, AND SOREN WALLJAS-
PER NGM STAFF; ENRIQUE MALLÉN, ONLINE PICASSO
PROJECT; PATRICIA HEALY. SOURCE: ONLINE
PICASSO PROJECT
DECONSTRUCTING PICASSO
STROKES OF GENIUS
From his early childhood years sketching in the dirt to his final hours at age 91, Pablo
Picasso was devoted to mastering his deeply personal art. He’s considered one of
the most influential artists of the 20th century, and his work continues to be studied
for its meaning and celebrated for its creativity. His subject matter and style, inspired
by his many lovers and by other artists, were ever changing. Picasso’s work is loosely
divided here into 14 distinct phases, coupled with the artist’s own words.
MASTER OF MANY FORMS
28,743 CATALOGUED ARTWORKS
Drawings
Paintings
Engravings
Ceramics
Uncategorized
Watercolours
Lithographs
Guaches
Sculptures
Pastels
Collages
Photographs
12,916
4,530
3,194
1,685
1,660
Picasso is most famous for his
thousands of paintings, but he
also created other types of art,
including costume design
and ballet sets.
1,039
“When I was a child, my mother said
to me, ‘If you become a soldier, you’ll
be a general. If you become a monk,
you’ll end up as the pope!’ Instead, I
became a painter and wound up
as Picasso.”
992
864
843
363
333
324
“I am not in favor of following any
determined school because that
only brings about similarity among
adherents.”
NUMBER OF ARTWORKS,
BY QUARTER YEAR
HIS LIFE, LOVERS,
AND MUSES
1890
Marriage
Lover
Child
Relationship
CREATIVE
PERIOD
AGE
8
Rabbits, bullfights,
and a full-length fig-
ure of Hercules are
shown in his earliest
drawings.
“I just painted the images that
rose before my eyes. It is for other
people to find hidden meanings
in them.”
Picasso immerses himself in Barcelona’s
bohemian scene, where he makes
the acquaintance of some of his best
friends at Els Quatre Gats café.
1895
13
“When it is finished, [a picture] still
goes on changing, according to the
state of mind of whoever is looking
at it. A picture lives a life like a living
creature, undergoing the changes
imposed on us by our life from day
to day. This is natural enough, as the
picture lives only through the man
who is looking at it.”
314
1900
Odette
18
Fernande
Olivier
Madeleine
1905
398
23
“I never do a painting as a work of
art. All of them are researches. I
search incessantly, and there is a
logical sequence in all this research.”
1910
28
Eva Gouel
Lover Eva Gouel falls
ill and dies.
“Painting isn’t an aesthetic oper-
ation; it’s a form of magic designed
as a mediator between this strange,
hostile world and us, a way of seeing
power by giving form to our terrors
as well as to our desires.”
Gaby
Depeyre
1915
33
Olga
Khokhlova
Irène
Lagut
1920
38
Paulo
“A picture used to be a sum of
additions. With me, a picture is
a sum of destructions.”
Picasso engraves dozens of
works to illustrate the book
Les Métamorphoses of Ovid
and the famous Suite Vollard,
commissioned by art dealer
Ambroise Vollard.
1925
43
Marie-
Thérèse
Walter
“I have never made trials or exper-
iments … Whenever I had something
to say, I have said it in the manner in
which I have felt it ought to be said.
Different motives invariably require
different methods of expression.”
Khokhlova
and Picasso
were separ-
ated after
1935 but
remained
married until
her death
in 1955.
1930
48
294
“In my opinion, to search means
nothing in painting. To find is
the thing.”
1935
Maya
53
Dora Maar
1940
58
“I have reached the stage where
the movement of my thought
interests me more than the
thought itself.”
Françoise
Gilot
1945
63
Claude
Paloma
1950
Picasso starts a series of
drawings on the theme
of “painter and model.”
He completes 180 works
by February 1954.
68
Geneviève
Laporte
“Artists who live and work with spiritual values
cannot and should not remain indifferent to a
conflict in which the highest values of humanity
and civilisation are at stake.”
1955
73
Sylvette David, a young
woman who was never
linked to him romantically,
inspired one of his most
prolific series (65 pieces
in different mediums).
“A work of art must not be some-
thing that leaves a man unmoved,
something he passes by with a
casual glance. It has to make him
react, feel strongly, start creating
too, if only in his imagination.”
1960
78
Jacqueline
Roque
266
1965
83
“Me, I always seek a likeness … A
painter must observe nature but
never confuse it with painting. It
can only be translated into
painting through signs.”
1970
88
When asked what his favourite
period of his career was, Picasso
answered: “The next one.”
Picasso spends a considerable
amount of time making engravings
for two famous series, Suite 347
and Suite 156.
1973
91
ARTWORKS:
1. SCIENCE ET CHARITÉ (1897)
2. LE MOULIN DE LA GALETTE (1900)
3. LA VIE (1903)
4. LA FAMILLE DE SALTIMBANQUES (LES BATELEURS)
(1905)
5. AUTOPORTRAIT À LA PALETTE (1906)
6. LES DEMOISELLES D’AVIGNON (1907)
7. PORTRAIT D’AMBROISE VOLLARD (1910)
8. NATURE MORTE À LA CHAISE CANNÉE (1912)
9. LA FLÛTE DE PAN (1923)
10. LES TROIS DANSEUSES (LA DANSE) (1925)
11. GUERNICA (1937)
12. NATURE MORTE AU CRÂNE DE BOEUF (1942)
13. PAYSAGE MÉDITERRANÉEN (1952)
14. TÊTE (AUTOPORTRAIT) (1972)
RYAN MORRIS, EVE CONANT, AND SOREN WALLJASPER,
NGM STAFF; ENRIQUE MALLÉN, ONLINE PICASSO PROJECT;
PATRICIA HEALY. SOURCE: ONLINE PICASSO PROJECT