Factor 1: Highly productive career that lasted for 75+ years.
Born in 1881, Picasso began displaying extraordinary talent at the age of 10 — his father (a professor of art) vowed to give upThough paintings by him exist from later years as well. painting when he felt that the 13-year-old Picasso had surpassed him in drawing abilities.
Before Picasso died in 1973 (age 91+), he had created over 20,000Some sources estimate the total number to be 50,000. works of art.
Also, because he devoted 80 of his 91 years to art, he could master just about every graphic mediumPainting, drawing, sculpting, ceramics, etc. and, by being spread over 8 decades, his work remained relevant across different social, political and economic backdrops.
He was known for his breakneck speed at art — at the age of 87, he made 347 works in 7 months — and one French art critic once told him: “for his own good, [he should] no longer do a painting a day.”
Factor 2: Invention of new styles of art.
Picasso co-founded new art forms—cubismCubism aims to show all possible viewpoints of a person/object in a way that it looks like it is made out of cubes and other geometrical shapes and collageCollage is made up of assorted materials (newspaper cutting, fabric, photos, etc.) glued to a paper, board, or canvas.—and his experimental work continues to influence numerous styles and movements even today.
Factor 3: He died extremely rich.
Since the 1920s, Picasso was able to sell works at very high pricesWomen of Algiers (Version O) (1954–55) sold at auction for a record-breaking $179 million in 2015, beating previous record-breaking sales of Le Rêve (1932) for $155 million in 2013 and Boy with a Pipe (1905) for $104 million in 2004. and, therefore, he could afford to keep most of his work in his own collection — the net worth of this collection at the time of his death was between $100 Mn to $230 Mn ($530 Mn to $1.3 Bn today).
Factor 4: A life full of controversies.
Picasso was famous for his dozens of affairs and treating women (two went mad & two committed suicide) & children badly; most of his relationships are believed to have ended in troubling ways.
It is said that he was arrogant and a self-promoter who used politics, eccentricity, provocation, and scandals as his selling tools.
And his self-promotion turned out to be successful — his name brand is among the most commoditised artist name in the world (appearing on clothing, apps, cars, bars, and restaurants).
He was often accused of copying but he claimed that copying was his search for stimulation — his greatness was not so much the creation of new content but the use of others’ ideas in a radical way.
