What We Can Learn From Picasso

On simplicity and staying true to your own vision

The building in Málaga where Pablo Ruiz Picasso was born in 1881, now housing a museum. Photo: Per Håkansson.

Pablo Picasso grew up just a few minutes away from my place here in Málaga. He’s a great example of an artist who began copying the masters to then create his own simple and original paintings of how he experienced the world.

His paintings are playful, almost childlike, but tremendously powerful. Guernica for example, the depiction of how Franco with the help of Nazi Germany bombarded this small basque village, made the horrors of the Spanish civil war know world wide.

“It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but a lifetime to paint like a child.” – Pablo Picasso

The painting is large but simple, describing the savage attack through the suffering of people and animals in agonizing pain and despair. Their facial expressions are screaming for help and pleading mercy.