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

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.

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.

'Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not.'

- Pablo Picasso

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'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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

'If you hear a voice within you say 'you cannot paint,' then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.'

- Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)

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.

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

How legendary artists overcame creative block

For most artists, creative block—the unfortunate experience when new ideas suddenly disappear—is inevitable. This Artsy article looks at six artists (including Picasso, Monet, and O’Keeffe) who dealt with creative block and overcame it by experimenting with new media, moving to a new place, or by sheer willpower. It also highlights one artist, Chuck Close, who claims that he never dealt with creative block because he simply viewed his artistic practice as any other job.

'Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud.'

- Maya Angelou

The history of iconic pigments used in seven famous paintings

While art paints can be bought by the bucket at any craft store today, pigments throughout history have been difficult to come by. Art historian Kelly Grovier traces the fascinating history of pigments that make up hidden layers in masterpieces from Picasso and Hokusai’s Prussian Blue to Vermeer’s shade of red.

Breaking down sunlight and why the sun appears yellow despite emitting green light the most

This peak intensity is produced alongside a spectrum of other colors, which, when combined, make the sun appear white in space. Since Earth's atmosphere scatters bluer and greener wavelengths of light more than red and orange wavelengths, sunlight reaching Earth's surface appears yellow, while the sky appears blue. (Some readers may experience a paywall.)

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.

The scientists trying to prove Jackson Pollock's symbolism

Jackson Pollock is one of the most famous American artists in history. He is well-known for his Abstract Expressionist "drip paintings," which seemed to defy interpretation. But following the artist's posthumous bipolar diagnosis, a team of scientists attempted to prove that his symptoms, including mania and psychosis, caused Pollock to embed images under his thrown paint.

Bellagio hotel sells Picasso artwork

Eleven Picasso paintings and other works that helped turn Las Vegas into an unlikely destination for art were sold at auction for more than $100 million.

The 'Old Guitarist' challenged art's standards of beauty

For much of Western art history, the definition of “beauty” in art was dictated by academies rather than personal taste. Artists like Picasso challenged these standards with works considered “ugly” for discarding anatomical accuracy or linear perspective in favor of a feeling.

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.

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.

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.

'Mistakes are almost always of a sacred nature. Never try to correct them. On the contrary: rationalize them, understand them thoroughly. After that, it will be possible for you to sublimate them.'

- Artist Salvador Dalí (1904-1989)

David Hockney's 'Splash' paintings depicted the Brit's adoration for California

Bradford-born David Hockney saw the lure of California as an escape from the dreariness of London and a symbol of social and sexual freedom. Sotheby’s reflects on Hockney’s series of three "Splash" paintings, capturing ephemeral moments and the magic of America as a cultural export in the 1960s.

This famous painting was hung upside-down for 77 years

According to a curator at a German museum, an abstract painting by Dutch artist Piet Mondrian has been displayed upside down for seventy-seven years at a number of museums.

'I don't know what you can say about a day when you see four beautiful sunsets.'

- Astronaut John Glenn (1921–2016)

Looting art is often a byproduct of war

During WWII, Hitler orchestrated the theft of many masterpieces to eventually create his own museum. While many of these were recovered, iconic works such as Raphael's "[Portrait of a Young Man](https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/the-story-of-the-lost-raphaels-portrait-of-a-young-man/)" and Vincent van Gogh's "Painter on His Way to Work" remain missing or were destroyed by the Nazis.

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.

A quote from Van Gogh

"Find things beautiful as much as you can, most people find too little beautiful."

'Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog' is an iconic romantic artwork

Caspar David Friedrich’s painting portrays man’s fascination with the natural world and emphasizes his smallness in the midst of its grandeur, epitomizing Edmund Burke's concept of "the sublime."

David Hockney was renowned throughout the late 20th century for his colorful paintings, though later in life he drew attention for experimenting with his iPad.

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.

View historical records of solar observations and discoveries, from telescopes in the early 1600s revealing sunspots to NASA's Parker Solar Probe photographing the sun from within its outer corona in 2025.

Sun Ra, a free jazz legend, claimed he was an angel

Sun Ra is one of jazz's most storied cult acts, with a career that spans multiple decades, dozens of hard-to-find self-released albums, and a sound that challenged even the most adventurous listeners. Ra, born Herman Blount, claimed to be from Saturn and once told an interviewer that "Star Wars" was "very accurate."

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.

The creator of 'The Simpsons' made his characters yellow so they would contrast with everything else on TV.

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.

A composite of telescope images of the sun, which each reveal unique solar features

While traditional cameras can reveal sunspots—cooler regions on the sun's surface—in visible light, x-ray detectors can highlight explosions of high-energy plasma and magnetic fields known as coronal mass ejections. Hydrogen-alpha filters can reveal clouds and filaments of material suspended in magnetic fields above the sun's surface.

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.

Friedrich's paintings embody the romantic notion of 'the sublime'

Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich’s art uses vast, massive scale and masterful compositions to convey complex ideas of power, decay, permanence, and more. But his landscapes also present beautiful, overwhelming portraits of nature that perfectly embody philosopher Edmund Burke’s concept of “the sublime.”

'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,' a work by American painter Thomas Moran, inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone National Park.