"Ambiguous work. Where can we start?", wrote the art historian Oscar Schurer in the historic series Junge Kunst about Pablo Picasso's multi faceted oeuvre back in 1927.

Picasso, who was investigating Surrealism at the time, was regarded as a genius even then - and had another 40 years of creativity before him.

The magnificent legacy of a talent which showed twentieth century art the way forward consists of an almost unimaginable number of paintings, drawings, graphic works, sculp tures and ceramic items. The art historian Markus Muller knows where and above all how we can begin to grasp a multilayered oeuvre like Picasso's.

In this newly edited artist monograph he skilfully guides the reader through the virtuoso plethora of styles of Pablo Picasso, explains key works from the various periods and provides a fascinating impression of the bubbling energy of this multi talented artist. Not least as a result of the author's personal acquaintance with the Picasso family, the archive sect ion of the work promises a number of finds which are seldom on view.