On 25 October 1881 a littele boy was born in Malaga, Spain. It was a very difficult birth and to help him breathe, a doctor blew cigar smoke into the baby's nose. But in spite of being the youngest ever smoker, this little boy grew to be one of the most famous painters of the 20th century.
His truly exeptional talent was obvious from a very young age. It is said that the boy learned to draw before he learned to speak and his first word in Spanish was "lapiz", which means pencil. Picasso was the only boy in the family and he was good looking as well, so the parents used to spoil him a lot. He hated school from the start and often refused to attend classed. He only agreed to go to school if he was allowed to take one of his father's pet pigeons with him!
Apart from beautiful birds, Pablo's great love was art. Fortunately, in 1981 his father, who was an amateur artist, got a job as a drawing teacher, so Pablo want with him to the college. Sometimes the littele boy was also allowed to help with his father's paintings. One day his father was painting a picture of their pet pigeons, when he had to leave the room. When the man came back in, he saw that his son had completed the picture in such a lifelike manner, that he was given his own palette and brushes. He was only 13 years of age at that time. Pablo's father never ever touched his own brushes, though.
Soon many people realized that this young boy was a painting genius, but he didn't choose to be a traditional painter. He loved to break the rules of artistic tradition. Many were shocked by his strange yet very powerful paintings. People in his paintings were often made up by triangels and squares and their features used to be in the wrong place. That's why Picasso is called a "Cubist". His paintings are what modern art means to millions of people in the whole world!!
