Welcome to Daily TWiP, your daily dose of all the holidays and history we couldn’t cram into The Week in Preview.

Today (April 8th) we mark the passing of the co-founder of Cubism and the painter of such masterpieces as “Guernica” and “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon,” Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso. Thankfully, he went simply by Picasso.

Born Oct. 25, 1881 in Malaga, Spain, Picasso received his first formal art instruction from his father, an art professor and museum curator. He quickly surpassed his father (who vowed to give up painting as a result) and enrolled in the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona at the age of 13. He transferred to the Royal Academy of San Fernando in Madrid at age 16. Although he was extremely talented, Picasso lacked discipline and rarely made appearances in class.

Picasso moved to Paris after finishing his “studies” and, after several years of struggle, became a favorite of American art collectors Leo and Gertrude Stein. This relationship helped set the wheels of his artistic career in motion.

Together with Georges Braque, Picasso founded the Cubist style of painting, in which (to give a very basic definition) natural shapes are broken down into a series of planes. The style continues to influence art to this day, as well as architecture.

Unfortunately for Picasso, he was not able to simplify his personal life in the same way that he was able to simplify the subjects of his paintings. He was married twice, had four children with three different women, and had a number of mistresses.

Picasso died in 1973 at the age of 91 while hosting a dinner party with second wife Jacqueline Roque. His last words were, “Drink to me, drink to my health, you know I can’t drink any more.” Along with three of his children, Roque, and various lovers, Picasso left behind roughly 50,000 works of art, ranging from paintings and prints to ceramics and tapestries.

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– Teresa Santoski