Pablo Picasso was born in Málaga, Spain in 1881 and died in France in 1973. A painter, sculptor, draughtsman, printmaker, decorative artist and writer, he dominated 20th-century European art and was central in the development of the image of the modern artist. Painting was his principal medium, but his sculptures, prints, theatre designs and ceramics all had an impact on their respective disciplines. Even artists not influenced by the style or appearance of his work had to come to terms with its implications.

With Georges Braque, Picasso was responsible for Cubism, an art movement of the early 20th century and one of the most radical re-structurings of the way that a work of art constructs its meaning. During his extremely long life Picasso instigated or responded to most of the artistic dialogues taking place in Europe and North America, registering and transforming the developments that he found most fertile. His marketability as a unique and enormously productive artistic personality, together with the distinctiveness of his work and practice, has made him the most extensively exhibited and discussed artist of the 20th century.

Recent exhibitions of his work include Picasso: Tradition and the Avant-Garde, Museo Nacional del Prado and Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (2006);  Picasso and American Art at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2006) traveling to the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2007); Picasso et les Maîtres, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais (2008–09); Picasso: Challenging the Past National Gallery, London (2009) and Picasso at the Metropolitan Museum, New York (2010).