It's been said that Picasso changed style whenever he changed lovers. That may be an exaggeration, but when viewing the evolution of Picasso's art, it's easy to imagine the upheavals in his private life. Married twice and with four children by three women, the artist's lovers — Fernande Olivier, Olga Khoklova, Marie Therese Walter, Dora Maar, Francoise Gilot and Jacqueline Roque — were often his models, too.

With two exhibitions of the master's works showing concurrently in Tokyo — "His Life, His Creation" at the National Art Center, Tokyo and "Portrait of a Soul" at the Suntory Museum, both till Dec. 14 — now is a great to time to trace his creative biography. In total, 230 works are currently on show, making for the largest-scale Picasso exhibitions ever held in Japan. With Paris' Musee National Picasso under renovation, the museum's collection of masterworks are traveling here after stops in Madrid and Abu Dhabi. Musee National Picasso opened in 1985 with works that Picasso's heirs inherited from the artist, including ones that the artist had held dear until his death.

The NACT is showing a total of 170 paintings, including early ones of Picasso's first wife, Olga Khoklova. A ballerina with the Ballets Russes, Khoklova influenced his shift from Cubism to neo-Classicism in the 1910s. The painter met her while designing the costumes and set for a 1918 production in which she appeared. A conservative, high-society woman, the ballerina asked to be drawn so that her face would be distinguishable, and Picasso's portraits of her are in a neo-Classical style that recalls the work of the early 19th-century artist Ingres.

In the 1930s, during the Spanish Civil War, Picasso mingled with young Surrealist artists and became embroiled in complex love affairs. During this period, his art broke free from the rigid confinement of Classical forms and his canvases show dramatic changes. His portraits of Dora Maar, a surrealist photographer, are painted in what became his trademark distorted style in which, for example, two eyes could be found facing in different directions. Though he approached abstraction in this period, there was always a human element recognizable in these works — "Figures on the Sea Shore" (1931) at NACT shows two figures that are almost geometric forms, yet clearly are uninhibitedly desiring each other.

Picasso loved his muses for their differences, which he deftly captured in his art. Also at NACT, two 1937 portraits are hung side by side: "Portrait of Marie-Therese," a painting of a blonde, maidenlike girl, is done in light colors with gentle lines reflecting the innocence of Marie-Therese, Picasso's nearly- three-decades-younger lover; in contrast, "Portrait of Dora Maar" is painted in darker, sharper colors with bold lines conveying the intelligence that Picasso was attracted to in the photographer. When Marie-Therese forced the painter to decide which woman he would stay with, he asked the two ladies to fight it out among themselves, which they proceeded to do as Picasso worked on his antiwar masterpiece "Guernica" (1937).

At the Suntory Museum, "Portrait of a Soul," a collection of 60 works, is shown in dimmer lighting as if to highlight facial expressions and reveal the introspective side of the artist. "Self Portrait" (1901), painted when Picasso was 20, represents his melancholic Blue period. A somber painting, the dark blue dominates the whole canvas, conveying anguish as the artist confronts his own presence after his good friend Carlos Casagemas, an artist with whom he had shared a studio, had committed suicide.

Though one may envy Picasso — surrounded by his multiple women — the artist was torn with dilemmas, and his anxiety is reflected in his "Minotaur" series. The monster from Greek mythology that had a bull's head and man's body, the Minotaur was Picasso's alter ego, an inner savage that must be fought and killed. Though the artist may have indulged himself, coming from Spain, the home of the bullfight, he recognized that sometimes the passions must also be quelled.

"His Life, His Creation" at the National Arts Center and "Portrait of a Soul" at the Suntory Museum are on show till Dec. 14; the NACT is open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. (Fri. until 8 p.m.) and the Suntory open 10 a.m.-8 p.m. (both museums closed on Tues.); admission to the NACT is ¥1,500 and the Suntory ¥1,300, but if you show your ticket from one museum at the second one, you will get a ¥200 discount. For more information visit www.asahi.com/picasso