The Musée Picasso has more than 5 thousand works, although the artist's best are displayed in other museums around the world. However, it offers a chance to truly appreciate the diversity in the representation, because Pablo Picasso (Spain, 1881- France, 1973) was able to get in and out of the many artistic movements of the 20th Century, excelling at them all.

Le Retour du bapteme d’aprés Le Nain, by Pablo Picasso (Fall, 1917)

Technique: oil on canvas

Musée Picasso, Paris

The Museum keeps approximately 300 paintings by Picasso, from portraits and works of his blue period, to his big nudes, his matadores and the musicians of his final years.

In the years between the two World Wars, Picasso returned to classic painting. Example of this is the following work, in which two young men stand in a modern architecture but surrounded by elements of classic Greek theatre, as the stands. Their clothing is also classic. Although one of them is playing an instrument, the painting is rather still. The distance between the two men, and the indifference of the second, increases this. The entire painting is quite melancholic.

The Pan Flute, by Pablo Picasso (1923)

Technique: oil on canvas

Musée Picasso, Paris

General View

The Pan Flute, by Pablo Picasso (1923)

Technique: oil on canvas

Musée Picasso, Paris

In "The Kiss" you can see two figures, intertwined. Picasso was leaving behind his classic period to start a surrealistic one. While the previous painting was melancholic, this one is very energetic and, with its colors and playful arrangement, it resembles a comic.

The Kiss, by Pablo Picasso (Summer, 1925)

Technique: oil on canvas

Musée Picasso, Paris

Quite into his surrealistic period, with interest in metamorphosis, Picasso creates "Woman sitting in a red armchair". But in spite of his many paintings, he did not mingle with other surrealistic artists and almost never exhibited his works with them.

Woman sitting in a red armchair, by Pablo Picasso (1932)

Technique: oil on canvas

Musée Picasso, Paris

"Bull head" is a piece Picasso made with a bike's handlebar and seat: a perfect metamorphosis in which two objects come together to create a brand new, and much-talked-about, shape. Picasso's genius produces a work in which the primary elements disappear so we only see the bony bull's head.

Cabeza de Toro, by Pablo Picasso (1942)

Materials: bike's seat and handlebar

Musée Picasso, Paris

It is said that, in 1943, when Picasso visits photographer George Brassai, he tells him:

- Do you know how I did Bull head? One day I saw a pile of useless stuff and there I found the seat of an old bike next to a rusty handlebar. Like in a flash, both objects came together in my head. The idea came to me before I could even think of it. All I did was to join them… And if you could only see the head and not the seat and handle, then the sculpture would lose its impact.

Picasso and Duchamp claim the artistic reign of the 20th century. Both were one-of-a-kind talents and their work transcends through time.