“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 be the pope.' Instead I became a painter and wound up as Picasso.”

Spanish painter and sculptor

Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter and sculptor who spent most of his adult life in France. Born in 1881 and active until his death in 1973, he became one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. He is especially known for co-founding Cubism and for helping shape several major developments in modern art. His work ranged widely across styles, and he helped pioneer constructed sculpture and collage. Among his best-known paintings are Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, begun in 1907, and Guernica, completed in 1937 as a response to the bombing of the Basque town during the Spanish Civil War.