In late 1906, Picasso started to paint in a truly revolutionary manner; Inspired by Cézanne’s flattened Image of space. With these efforts at flattening paintings Picasso had developed Cubism into an entirely new means of art. In analytical Cubism, objects were deconstructed into their parts. In some cases, this was a means to find different viewpoints easily. The aim of Analytical Cubism was to produce a conceptual image of an object. In 1912, Picasso took the conceptual representation of Cubism to its logical conclusion by pasting an actual piece of oilcloth onto the canvas. This was used in Modern Art. By putting the real world into the canvas, Picasso opened up a century’s worth of exploration in Art.

Most of these sorts of paintings were stopped after the first world war. Picasso, reflecting society’s disillusionment and shock with the technological horrors of the war, reverted to a Classic mode of presentation. At the same time, however, he was continuing to push Cubism into new paths.

In the last two decades of his long career, Picasso produced more work than at any other time of his life. During this period, some works are not only dated by month and day, but with a numeral (I, II, III, etc.) indicating multiple works created that single day!
This late period tends to be overlooked, but contains some of the finest of Picasso’s paintings. Some say Picasso was creatively lazy at this point, but a close look at the work is very rewarding.