Art is a form of expression unlike any other, a gift for the eyes that only words can hint at. Since it’s creation, art has certainly flourished over a long period of time, changing not only the way people look at it, but also the meaning behind why they look at it. What started out as a small pleasure has influenced our world in more ways than one. One of the most important figures in modern art who has certainly aided the advance of his prime is Pablo Picasso. From his notorious paintings to the invention of cubism, Picasso’s accomplishments have certainly made a large impact on not only history itself, but also the present world that we live in today. He was a rare talent in history; a bona fide being whose craft not only spoke for himself, but for everyone else who embraced his artistry.

Growing up as a child, Picasso’s parents heavily influenced him to be an artist. At the tender age of eight, he had already drawn an artistic picture of bullfighting. Picasso’s father saw how talented his son was and gave him all his brushes and paints, deciding to never paint again. They also moved to Barcelona where Picasso was accepted into a local art school where his father taught drawing. Pablo once again proved his artistic abilities, skipping the basic courses and going right into the advanced ones at age fourteen. With a bright future ahead of him, Pablo was sent to Madrid to study art at the Royal Academy of San Fernando. While there, he spent a lot of time goofing off because he found copying and studying other paintings and sculptures boring and old-fashioned. He decided to paint however he wanted and was ready to be on his own. His ambition and independence led him to success as he made all kinds of art from ceramics to collages. His style of paintings in art sent powerful messages about politics, society, love and peace.


One of the most important roles in the development of modern art was Cubism. Cubism was created by Picasso himself along with Georges Braque and had a huge impact on the world because this new painting style provided a different way of seeing. The origins of cubism started off with just one painting by Picasso. It was one of the biggest paintings that he had ever done and featured five women, each whose head looked as if it was on backwards. The painting was named “Les Demoiselles D’Avignon” which in English means the young ladies of Avignon. The five women portrayed were very ugly and distorted; they looked as if they were going to fall into pieces. It had caused a controversy with many people because they thought that it should have looked more realistic and professionally done rather than a mockery to art itself. Picasso had broken all the rules while creating this painting, but his only main goal in mind was to try and paint the women from more than one angle at a time, hoping that the viewer saw more than what meet the eye. Though it was heavily criticized throughout history, today it has been called the first modern twentieth century painting. Picasso broke away from tradition, setting his own guide for what he believed was art.
This painting had led to a close relationship with Georges Braque since both of them found out that they thought alike. For five years, Picasso and Braque did still life paintings, portraits, and landscapes. They didn’t use too much color and broke up objects in the painting into cubes and geometric shapes. In an effort to represent the whole object and its position in space, the object was painted in several different viewpoints simultaneously. “ I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them,” said Picasso, as a new era in art was about to begin- an unfamiliar style called cubism. Cubism was a kind of painting that no longer aimed to represent reality. It was a different way of exhibiting an object through geometric shapes, all placed cohesively to try and portray different sides of the object. In the history of art, it marked the end of the Renaissance-dominated era and the beginning of modern art. Cubism was also seen as the starting element of many other modern art movements like futurism and purism. The style had made such an impact that it was separated into Analytical Cubism, the second phase of the movement which concentrated on geometrical forms using subdued colors, and the final phase known as Synthetic Cubism, which used more decorative shapes, stenciling, collage, and brighter colors. As a result of the development of cubism, it has heavily influenced art in different parts of the world, especially western art. This style is so widely used thanks to Picasso that we have museums such as the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Metropolitan, all who show how far modern art has come throughout the years.

What had made Picasso different from other artists of his time was that his art not only reflected his emotions in his own personal life, but the outside world as well. He was not afraid to push the boundaries of the human mind from issues such as war to peace. One of the issues that he painted was present in the Spanish civil war, a military revolt against the Republican government of Spain; it was an outcome of a polarization in Spanish life and politics that had developed over the previous decades. In April 1937, Germans who sided with the current dictator of Spain at the time, General Francisco Franco, bombed the town of Guernica in northeast Spain, not far from where Picasso grew up. More than sixteen hundred people were killed and almost nine hundred more were injured. Outraged by the murder of all these innocent people, Picasso decided to paint his most famous painting up to date, Guernica. In blue, black, and white oil tones, the painting portrayed the suffering of people, animals, and buildings through the chaos. It showed a screaming horse, a fallen soldier, a screaming woman on fire falling from a burning house, and a mother holding a dead baby. Two interesting aspect of the painting was the bull and the horse, which according to Picasso was the mural’s two dominant elements. “...This bull is a bull and this horse is a horse... If you give a meaning to certain things in my paintings it may be very true, but it is not my idea to give this meaning. What ideas and conclusions you have got I obtained too, but instinctively, unconsciously. I make the painting for the painting. I paint the objects for what they are." said Picasso of the painting. According to him, it was not up to the painter to define the symbols. Otherwise, he would have just written it in words. Guernica overall represented the brutality of war in general. It’s significant because people actually had to think about the image that they saw, and each perceived it in a different way. Picasso’s style of painting led people to look deep into the meanings of arts rather than just taking it for what it was. Guernica was an instant show-stopper and people all over the world were able to relate to Picasso's tormented scene.

Another one of his many accomplishments was when he had made a poster of a dove for the Peace Congress after the second World War. After surviving three wars, Picasso knew how important it was to work for peace in the world and the dove has since then become one of the most important and recognizable symbols of peace around the world.

Picasso was an eccentric, innovative and perplexing man, a free spirit. He was arguably the greatest 20th century who certainly had a knack for utter genius in the world of art. He influenced art not only with his unique style, but the many sculptures and paintings that he has created. Picasso also inspired many other artist in their own respectable art movements as well due to his passion in setting his own standard for what he wanted. One might not be fond of his works or find them confusing, but there is no doubt that without Pablo Picasso, modern art and the world would not be what it is today. His many accomplishments not only impacted the history that he lived in, but as well the future of how the world saw art.