Six things to know about Picasso

• 1. He was a child prodigy

  He claimed that he could draw before he could speak, and as a child Picasso certainly displayed a precocious artistic ability. The son of an artist, he was schooled in academic drawing techniques from a young age and was admitted to art school at just 13. Later, while visiting an exhibition of children’s drawings, Picasso enjoyed the irony of noting that “When I was their age I could draw like Raphael, but it has taken me a lifetime to learn to draw like them.”

• 2. He revolutionised collage and assemblage

  Together with fellow cubist pioneer Georges Braque, Picasso made the breakthrough of introducing pasted paper and ephemera into his art early in the 20th century. It was a revolutionary innovation on many levels. Not only were these the first works in mixed media, but by smashing the dividing line between ‘high’ art and found objects drawn from mass culture, they paved the way for many of the century’s key artistic ideas. Picasso soon took the discovery of these so-called papiers collés still further by developing them into three-dimensional cubist guitars: art’s first assemblages.

• 3. He was a hoarder

  Picasso hated to throw anything away and built up an enormous personal archive, which today allows us a remarkably detailed understanding of his life. Amongst Picasso’s collection was a vast array of paper items, from labels, newspapers and visiting cards destined to be recycled as components in his art, to rare and antique papers sourced from as far away as Japan.

• 4. He filled 16 sketchbooks with studies for a single work

  Picasso was more than capable of working extremely quickly, producing as many as three paintings in a day. Yet he could also take extraordinary care and time in the preparation of a single artwork, like his era-defining masterpiece Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. It was no easy gestation, as 16 full sketchbooks and dozens of preparatory studies on paper attest. Even when at last the final painting emerged, he maintained for decades that it was still unfinished.

• 5. He experimented with photography

  Picasso’s enquiring spirit led him into new artistic territory throughout his long career. His exploration of photography was typical of his boundary-pushing approach. He tried out experimental techniques and joined forces with a number of avant-garde photographers, drawing over photographs and incorporating collage. Amongst Picasso’s most interesting photographic works are collaborations with his then-lover, the artist Dora Maar.

• 6. He once abandoned painting for poetry

  In 1935, Picasso found himself at an impasse in his professional and personal life. For the only time in his career he ceased painting, drawing and sculpting, instead dedicating himself (with some success) to poetry. Some months later Picasso did of course return to visual art, but he continued to write for many years and even penned two surrealist plays.