No artist has affected Modern Art more than Pablo Ruiz Picasso. Thousands of masterpieces he had created changed the way people thought about art. Picasso was perhaps the most talented and successful artist who ever lived.
Picasso was born in 1881 in a small town on the southern coast of Spain. His father was a painter who taught art. Picasso showed exceptional talent at an early age and, by the time he was in his teens, painted better than his father or any of the local art teachers. At sixteen, Picasso was sent to the Royal Academy of Madrid, where students drew from plaster casts and copied works of the old masters. Picasso felt these assignments were pointless and began to work on his own. Picasso's father soon became angry with his son's rebellious behaviour, long hair, and strange clothes. He believed that Picasso was wasting his talent and scolded him, "Why don't you cut your hair and paint sensibly?"
In 1900, Picasso left for Paris—then the centre of the art world. He lived in a cold, run-down building, painting constantly, sometimes surviving for days on only a piece of bread. During these years, his art reflected his dismal(凄凉的) surroundings. Homeless outcasts were the subject of many of his fairly realistic early paintings. After seeing African masks and sculptures, his works became more simplified and angular(有棱角的) leading up to the revolutionary new style known as Cubism.
Picasso didn't sell many of his works during these early years. But he worked continuously, always experimenting with different styles of painting. Though Picasso lived to be ninety-two and became the most famous artist in the world, he spoke of his youthful days in Paris as "the happiest time of my life".
