"Pablo Picasso" is a song written by Jonathan Richman for the proto punk group The Modern Lovers. The song was recorded in 1972 at Whitney Studios in Los Angeles, and produced by John Cale, but was not released until 1976, on the Modern Lovers' self-titled debut album. The recording featured Richman (lead guitar, vocals), Ernie Brooks (second guitar), Jerry Harrison (bass) and David Robinson (drums), with Cale playing the repetitive hammered piano part.
The central character of the song is the charismatic 20th century artist Pablo Picasso, suggesting that, unlike most men and despite Picasso's rather diminutive stature, women never rejected his romantic advances. In a 1980 interview, Richman stated that the song was inspired by his own adolescent "self-consciousness" with women.