Behind the Artist: When Pablo Became Picasso

Witness the rise of Pablo Ruiz, from a boy taught to draw by his father to the revolutionary who would shatter artistic conventions. In 1900 Paris, the ambitious 20-year-old Catalan immigrant absorbs the raw intensity of Van Gogh and the bohemian edge of Toulouse-Lautrec while forging his own distinct voice in a fierce rivalry with Matisse. Through archival images and vivid storytelling, the documentary captures Picasso’s electrifying Montmartre years, his passionate relationship with Fernande Olivier, and the tragic suicide of his friend Carles Casagemas, which triggers his melancholic Blue Period. A creative awakening in Gosol, Spain, inspired by medieval sculpture, unlocks new directions leading to “Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.” Painted at just 25, this radical masterpiece breaks with tradition and establishes Picasso as the defining artist of the 20th century.