>Picasso is famous for reinventing himself and abandoning cubism (which he invented) to study and pursue classical painting.

He abandoned cubism in his 20s or so. He afterwards had 50+ years of more boring work with less re-invention.

And Billy Joel switched from Pop to Classical, but his Classical work wasn't as important as his Pop work. He's no Picasso but the pattern holds.

But would those classical paintings be as famous if his earlier work wasn't? Probably not.