At this time, perhaps the only person in a position to make a judgment is Picasso himself. A personal interview with him has been recorded by the Italian author, Giovanni Papinin. The exact words of Picasso, states Papinin, were as follows:
“From the moment that art ceases to be the food that feeds the best minds, the artist can use his talent to perform all the tricks of the intellectual charlatan.”
“Most people today can no longer expect to receive consolation and exaltation from art.”
“The ‘refined’ and the ‘rich’, the professional ‘do-nothings’ the ‘distillers of quintessence’ desire only the peculiar, the sensational, the eccentric, the scandalous in today’s art. And I, myself, since the advent of cubism, have fed these fellows what they wanted and satisfied these critics with all the ridiculous ideas that have passed through my head.”
“The less they understood them, the more they admired me.”
“By amusing myself with all these farces, I became celebrated very rapidly. For a painter, the word ‘celebrated’ means sales and consequent influence.”
“Today as you know, I am celebrated. I am rich.”
“But when I am alone, I do not have the affrontery to consider myself an artist at all, not in the grand old meaning of the word. Giotto, Titian, Rembrandt, Goya were great painters.”
“I am only a public clown, a mountebank. I have understood my time and have exploited the imbecility, the vanity and the greed of my contemporaries.”
“It is a bitter confession, this confession of mine, more painful than it may seem, but at least and at last it does have the merit of being honest.”
By Meyer and Eli Levin Philadelphia Inquirer 1961
There are many arguments for abstract Art. It is hard to imagine these arguments without Picasso. Pablo Picasso, it is claimed time and again, is surely the modern master. His fabulous output is said to be the expression of the 20th century, just as past centuries have had the enduring expression of Titian, Rembrandt, and Goya. It is claimed that Picasso is the only twentieth century artist who clearly possesses the dexterity of a master. During Picasso’s lifetime, many more books have been written about his art than have been written about the works of any other artist since the printing press was invented.
~ Background/Bio ~
