Quote of the Day: Picasso on Artists & Himself

Hmmmm:

Many of us continue being artists for reasons that have very little to do with real art, but rather for the sake of imitation, for nostalgia of tradition, because of inertia, love of ostentation, luxury, intellectual curiosity, to be fashionable, or by calculation. Such artists survive because of habit, snobbery, the recent past; but the great majority of artists in all the fields of art lack a sincere passion for art, which they consider a pastime, a relaxation, an ornament. 

Oh, snap!  Even more striking, though, may be Picasso's comments about himself and his own art:

Amusing myself with these games, the squiggles, the jigsaw puzzles, the riddles and arabesques, I quickly became famous. And celebrity for the artist means sales, commissions, fortune, wealth. 

Now, as you know, I am famous and rich. But when I am alone with myself, I have not the courage to consider myself an artist in the grand old sense of the word. 

There have been great painters like Giotto, Titian, Rembrandt and Goya. I am nothing but a public buffoon who understood his times. Mine is a bitter confession, more painful than it may seem, but it has the merit of being sincere.

I've never liked Picasso's art so much, though he deserves some props for honesty in his self-critique and he certainly made a splash in art history with Cubism. I don't like modern art in general. Giotto, Titian, Rembrandt, Goya, though ... Beautiful.  I'm a young woman with old tastes, I suppose!