Although primarily known for his painting, Pablo Picasso was also a poet.

Picasso is known as one of the creators of cubism

In the early 1900s, cubism redefined modern art by breaking objects into geometric shapes and showing multiple perspectives at once. Developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, it challenged the idea that art should mirror reality, and laid the foundation for many movements that followed.

See some of Picasso's most famous works

Picasso is one of history’s most famous painters. He redefined the standards of artistic beauty and forged a unique, revolutionary modern style. Today, he inspires artists looking to challenge the status quo. The Museu Picasso in Barcelona, the artist’s hometown, holds nearly 5,000 of Picasso’s early works, making it the perfect place to glimpse the ideas and range of his artistic practice. Below is 1917's "Fruit Bowl."

Picasso is known as one of the creators of cubism

Cubism is an artistic style pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in the early 20th century. Cubist works portray objects and people from multiple perspectives rather than from one fixed position. This helpful explainer from The National Galleries of Scotland breaks down the history of the style and movement, offering some examples of cubist works.

Picasso was one of the 20th century's most influential artists

The artist is recognized as one of the inventors of cubism, which simplified figures and scenes into flattened geometric shapes and imagined arrangements. The movement spurred new styles in response and led to increasingly abstract art. Styles like futurism, dada, De Stijl, and art deco were built on the simple forms, abstract ideas, collage, and found objects of early cubism.

In 1949, photography changed Picasso's perspective

Picasso never stopped experimenting, moving through new and familiar styles and materials throughout his life. Despite that, most people only associate Picasso with painting. But in 1949, a chance encounter with Albanian-American photographer Gjon Mili brought yet another medium into Picasso’s world: light.

Pablo Picasso's Blue Period, one of his most recognizable artistic eras, was inspired by the loss of his friend, Carles Casagemas.

Picasso’s legacy is often intertwined with his personal relationships

Family revelations and quotes show the legendary artist as both tender and cruel, and his fame and romantic advances sometimes had disastrous effects on those around him.

Picasso was a major influence on Jean-Michel Basquiat

Both Picasso and Basquiat are major figures of 20th-century art, with distinctive styles that flew in the face of the formalized standards of their respective times. Below is one of Basquiat's portraits of Picasso, who influenced the younger artist’s approach to form, from 1984.

Picasso is the bestselling painter of all time

Picasso’s artistic legacy remains lucrative 50 years after his death. His output was immense, and several individual works have sold at auction for over $100M. Those sales were not only jaw-dropping but also historic, leading to Picasso’s place as the top-grossing artist of all time.

His father, an art instructor, taught him to paint

Picasso’s talent was evident from an early age. With the encouragement and instruction of his father, an artist and art instructor, he developed classical techniques that often surprise those only familiar with his abstract works.

Picasso was initially ignored by the US art market

Picasso's now-iconic style was radical for its time and, as such, was something the US art market initially ignored. Hugh Eakin, author of "Picasso's War: How Modern Art Came to America," tells the story of the social norms, tax laws, and influential figures like lawyer John Quinn that set the course for modern art in America in the early 1900s.

Picasso's 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' is seen as the start of cubism

The 1907 work rejects many of the art world norms of the time, like linear perspective and realistic depictions of light. Picasso's painting also nods to African masks, demonstrating a willingness to indulge in styles outside the Western canon.

Picasso had several distinct periods

Picasso was known for his ever-evolving style, which art historians have often divided into his artistic periods. Warmer color palettes and subjects characterized his Pink Period (sometimes called the Rose Period). Other phases focused on neoclassical, surrealist, and mythological art and subjects. Below is Family of Saltimbanques from the Pink Period.

Goya's 'The Second of May 1808' inspired Picasso's 'Guernica'

Goya’s painting commemorated Spanish resistance to Napoleon’s armies, making it a notable part of both the history of Spain and the romantic movement. But it took scholars over a century to realize the impact it had on Pablo Picasso, whose own anti-war work, “Guernica,” used Goya’s painting as a reference.

Camus directed a Picasso-penned play

The show, called "Desire Caught by the Tail," was written by Picasso in 1941 while living in Nazi-occupied Paris. It was first staged in 1944, featuring several French intellectuals, including Albert Camus, who directed, as well as Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, who had starring roles.

The frenemies who shaped Modern Art

Matisse and Picasso are two of the biggest names in Modern Art, with works that redefined the possibilities of painting in the 20th century. While they were often cast as rivals, this Artnet article highlights their more complicated relationship, which was somewhere between a friendship, a mentorship, and an ongoing competition.

He also influenced contemporary artist George Condo

The scale and reach of Picasso and cubism inspired artists and art movements throughout the early to mid-20th century. In fact, his influence can still be seen in artists today. One such artist, George Condo (known for painting the album cover of Kanye West’s “My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy,” pictured below), heavily references Picasso’s visual language, transmuting the legendary artist’s geometric shapes and perspectives for a more contemporary audience.

Jeff Bezos has an art collection worth hundreds of millions

The collection includes an oil painting by Pablo Picasso that was once part of Picasso's personal collection. Bezos purchased the painting in a 2023 Sotheby's auction.

Picasso’s early masterpiece conceals a long-lost secret

Art historians have studied Picasso's Blue Period throughout the last century, but researchers have now uncovered something previously unknown: an underpainting of a woman under one of the artist's portraits.

Picasso's 'Guernica' protested the bombing of a Basque village

By 1937, Picasso's fame and influence had already made him a legend. Yet an unprovoked war crime in Guernica, Spain that same year—where 25 bombers dropped 100,000 pounds of bombs and explosives on civilians—inspired one of his most moving works.

A look at Barcelona's contemporary art scene

Barcelona is no stranger to influential artists: Antoni Gaudi, Joan Miró, and Pablo Picasso, to name a few. It was the cradle of the Catalan Modernism and Art Nouveau movements in the 19th and 20th centuries. Art continues to be an important form of expression in Barcelona, but style is always evolving. This piece introduces readers to the obscure neighborhoods and budding galleries shaping Barcelona's contemporary art scene.

Trove of posthumous paintings reveals Basquiat's technical skill and process

The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art exhibited 50 paintings by the artist in 2026 that had not been shown before. Focused primarily on heads and anatomy, the artworks are touched with signs of his process: smudges, footprints, splashes. The exhibit is annotated with comments from contemporary artists on Basquiat's visionary skill, with some describing him as one of the world's greatest. View a sampling and read more about them here.

A gallery of famous artists and their dogs

Picasso often featured his photographer's dog, Lump, in paintings, due to an unusually close connection. George O'Keeffe adopted chow chows as companions and protectors in the New Mexico desert. See the pets of Lucian Freud, Frida Kahlo, and more.

Read the Beats' poetry

The Beats were alike in their willingness to experiment and transgress, though the movement’s writers were distinct artists with varying styles. This collection showcases the breadth of the Beat Generation’s work, with authorized texts from Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Diane di Prima, Richard Brautigan and others.

Watch an artist explain how to paint in Pablo Picasso's cubist style, which flattens images and turns complex figures into geometric shapes.

Defining Dalí's surreal aesthetic

Salvador Dalí is known for his modernist paintings, but his surreal aesthetic has lived on long after his passing, with elements of his art making their way into fashion, film, and interior decorating. This incisive Artnet explainer unpacks the elements that make up Dalí's larger artistic vision and highlights the ways they still appear throughout popular culture.

Basquiat's art was text heavy

Like his graffiti, Basquiat’s drawings and paintings often featured words and phrases among images. Art historian Robert Farris Thompson said, “[i]t’s as if he were dripping letters.” Below is 1983’s Horn Players, which includes portraits of jazz greats Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie, along with words Basquiat associated with them.

William Blake may be best known as a poet, but he was also a painter

The author of "Songs of Innocence and of Experience" was a romantic poet and painter. "Newton," one of his better-known pieces, satirizes Isaac Newton, whom he saw as too concerned with the empiricism of science and, as a result, lacking an understanding of nature.

Blake's 'illuminated manuscripts' blended poetry and painting

Blake's poetry was often accompanied by the author's complementary illustrations. They’re masterful works of art, pieces that were unlike anything else in Blake’s time—or in ours. Thankfully, The William Blake Archive has scanned all of the original manuscripts, allowing you to see the majestic books in their entirety.

After the death of jazz legend Charlie Parker, Beat Generation poet and artist Ted Joans adorned New York's walls with some of its earliest graffiti that read 'Bird lives!'

Basquiat produced more than 1,000 paintings in 10 years

He worked incredibly quickly, producing an estimated 1,000 paintings and 2,000 drawings during his 10-year career. Despite having little formal training, Basquiat was an autodidact who read and consumed widely, then rapidly infused those influences into his work.

Camus won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1957 for his philosophical essays and fiction

The philosopher and novelist was one of the youngest writers to win the award, at just 44. In his acceptance speech, he spoke on the role of an artist in a world that seemed increasingly bleak. "Each generation doubtless feels called upon to reform the world," he said. "Mine knows that it will not reform it, but its task is perhaps even greater. It consists in preventing the world from destroying itself."

The early art of Dalí represents peak surrealism

When it debuted in New York in 1932, "The Persistence of Memory" captured international audiences with its absurd, dream-like reflection on time. In his later works, Dalí's work evolved and became more of a self-parody. This video breaks down the great Spanish artist's works.

Arnold Schoenberg, a pioneer of modern music, and painter Wassily Kandinsky, a pioneer of abstract art, were close friends who inspired one another's work.

Picasso was on trial for the theft of the 'Mona Lisa'

On August 22, 1911, the world was stunned by the theft of the "Mona Lisa" from the Louvre in Paris. As an international investigation searched for the culprit, a young Picasso was suspected to be part of a group of its thieves. While innocent in the disappearance of the Mona Lisa, he found himself on trial with reasonable suspicion: He was in possession of two Iberian statues that were the property of the same museum.

Read the poetry of Henry David Thoreau

Although primarily known for his nonfiction, the New England transcendentalist was also a prolific poet, writing verse that, like his essays, tackled nature, man, and society. The Academy of American Poets has collected 30 of his poems, which you can read for free.

'Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun.'

- Legendary artist Picasso (1881–1973)

Surrealism toyed with ideas from psychoanalysis

The movement's artists were interested in the ideas being explored in the burgeoning fields of psychology and psychoanalysis. Dalí, in particular, often created works that toyed with Freudian theories.

Camus and Sartre admired each other's work before becoming friends

The two writers, who would later be considered two of the biggest names associated with existentialism, wrote positive reviews of each others' early work, with Camus praising Sartre's novel "Nausea" and story collection "The Wall" and, later, Sartre favorably compared Camus' "The Stranger" to Franz Kafka and Ernest Hemingway. Still, their reviews included some critiques, hinting at the larger disagreements that would come much later.

The ideas of Einstein and Freud combined in 'The Persistence of Memory'

The Persistence of Memory was painted on a canvas roughly the size of a sheet of paper, depicting a desolate landscape with melting clocks, ants, and a distorted figure. The piece incorporates Freud and Einstein's ideas, resulting in a haunting composition symbolizing time's fluidity and Dalí's personal anxieties.

Hughes' poems brought blues and jazz to poetry

Poets like Walt Whitman and Claude McKay inspired Hughes, but he was also enamored with blues and jazz music. The styles informed the way he structured his verses, with Hughes employing repetition and rhythm in ways similar to the standard 12-bar blues form and playing with meter in a way that recalled the improvisation of jazz.

Salvador Dalí and Coco Chanel bonded over art and fashion

In the late 1930s, Chanel hosted the eccentric artist to like and work in her home. Despite their differing styles, the two icons collaborated, and Chanel even inspired Dalí to mimic her perfume in his artwork.

The widespread violence of World War I birthed surrealism

Following World War I, artists used unconventional forms of expression to make sense of the death and destruction they'd witnessed for years. Life as they knew it had ended, and movements like Surrealism, founded by André Breton, rebelled against tradition.

Read Langston Hughes’ most famous poems

The writer is considered one of the most important voices in American verse, noted for his use of authentic vernacular, vivid imagery, and jazz-inspired rhythm in poems such as “Harlem,” “I, Too,” and “The Weary Blues.

Music was a profound inspiration for Basquiat

The prolific artist loved music, obsessing over David Bowie, Aretha Franklin, and numerous jazz figures. Many of his favorites appeared in his paintings, creating a body of work that also acts as a glossary of influences. Below is a 1984 portrait of Max Roach, the jazz drummer. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

Who was Salvador Dalí?

Salvador Dalí reshaped modern art with surrealism, symbolism, and eccentricity. This snapshot covers his rise from Spanish prodigy to global icon, his Surrealist break, and his fascination with dreams and celebrity.

Sartre admired American novelist William Faulkner

In addition to writing philosophy and fiction, Jean-Paul Sartre was also a literary critic. His 1939 essay on Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury" focused on the way the American novelist commented on time, favorably comparing him to Marcel Proust. Ultimately, Sartre argues Faulkner's "despair" about a "closed future" is a result of the "social conditions of our present life." Ever the existentialist, though, Sartre suggests this reality is something that should inspire rather than depress.

Fascinating facts about Salvador Dalí

Salvador Dalí wasn’t just a famous surrealist painter, he was a master of spectacle. Known for leaving restaurant sketches as payment and believing he was his late brother’s reincarnation, Dalí blurred the line between art and persona. He even collaborated with Walt Disney on an experimental short, shelved for decades before its 2003 release.

Jackson Pollock and others developed 'action painting,' highlighting the creative process

A subcategory of performance art, action painting emerged in 1945 as a way to capture a moment-by-moment view of the creative process through painting. For these pieces, the physical act of painting is as important as the finished product. This short explainer video covers the philosophy behind action painting, as well as exploring the works of several well-known action painters, including Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, and Mark Rothko.

Browse the paintings of Arnold Schoenberg, the classical composer who also explored expressionist painting.