Pablo Ruiz Picasso is regarded as the greatest artist of the 20th century. He is the author of a vast number of works in different formats (paintings, sculptures, prints, ceramics, etc.). Moreover, he was able to take the different artist trends of his time to their ultimate expression, on which he left his own indelible hallmark. Picasso was born in Málaga. In the biography of Pablo Picasso, it is important to say that from an early age, he showed a great talent for drawing and painting. In 1891 he moved with his family to A Coruña and from there to Barcelona in 1895. In 1904, the artist finally settled in France. He received instruction from his father, who taught art in A Coruña and in the School of La Lonja in Barcelona. A very important milestone in the biography of Pablo Picasso was his first painting award, with the work Ciencia y Caridad ("Science and Charity") (1897), a realistic work that obtained a mention of honour in the National Fine Arts Exhibition in Madrid. 1895-1905 were years of great artistic activity. He established relations with a group of artists, who organised get-togethers in the tavern known as Els quatre gats ("The Four Cats"). During that time, he organised his first exhibitions of post-impressionist paintings, which included scenes of popular events and portraits of his bohemian friends. From 1901 to 1904 Picasso's work was focused on subjects that demonstrated his sensitivity to poverty and pain. This was his blue period: all his paintings were done using that colour. Famous works painted during this time include La Vida ("Life") (1903), and La planchadora ("Woman Ironing") (1904). From 1904, he set himself up in Paris and his paintings became less tragic and most colourful. They were based on subjects related to dancing and the circus. This was his pink period. Some of the most representative works painted during this time are Familia de Arlequín ("Harlequin Family") (1905) and La toilette (1906). Between 1906 and 1907, Picasso's painting became even more brilliant, ore thanks to the influence of the work of Cezanne and the primitive art movement (Iberian sculpture and African wood carvings). During this period, Picasso painted Las señoritas de Avignon ("The Young Ladies of Avignon") (1907), in which he broke with more traditional ways of painting, by introducing figures that were similar to African masks. From the year 1909, a salient feature of Picasso's biography is the intensive work he carried out in his workshop, with G. Braque. Together, they created a new pictorial system that was no longer based on classic perspective or chiaroscuro for defining volume. In Picasso's paintings, objects were broken down into geometrical units, shaped like cubes, in a simultaneous presentation of an object from multiple views. During the first phase of Cubism, known as the analytical phase, Picasso and Braque focused their work on still-life paintings and portraits. During the second phase, known as the synthetic phase, more complex figures were incorporated. From 1925, Picasso's paintings took on a new emotional component, and the compositions were loaded with symbolism. During the period between the two world wars, Picasso developed his own surrealistic language. Following the outbreak of the Spanish civil war, he painted his first historical and political work: Guernica. Picasso's Guernica and dove were both converted into universal icons against the violence of war. In 1963, the Picasso Museum was opened in Barcelona. In the biography of Pablo Picasso, we should not forget the exhibition organised in honour of the artist in Paris, in 1966, in which more than two thousand of his works were on show. Picasso was now a myth; the most popular artist in the history of painting. In October 2003, the Picasso Museum of Málaga was inaugurated, in the Palace of the Counts of Buenavista, in the historic part of the city.