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 critics maintain Picasso was creatively lazy at this point, but a close look at the work is very rewarding. He had achieved a level of effortless artistic expression that, I believe, has still not been fully appreciated after more than 25 years.

Regardless of your position on Picasso's personal and artistic life, each of us can, in view of our own mortality, be awed by his final self-portrait.

Matador and Nude Woman (1970)

Vieil homme assis, Mougins (1970)

Rembrandtesque Figure and Cupid (1969)

Embrace (1971)

Self-portrait (1972)