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Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso Quotes

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Famous Pablo Picasso Quotes

“Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to understand the song of a bird? Why does one love the night, flowers, everything around one, without trying to understand them? But in the case of a painting people have to understand. If only they would realize above all that an artist works of necessity, that he himself is only a trifling bit of the world, and that no more importance should be attached to him than to plenty of other things which please us in the world, though we can't explain them. People who try to explain pictures are usually barking up the wrong tree.”

PeopleIfsWorldWantShouldTryingDoeArtArtistNightSongBitsRealizingCasesTreePaintingFlowerPleaseBirdImportancePlentyWhy NotOne LoveTriflingBarking Up The Wrong Tree
Book:Picasso on art: a selection of views
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“The fact that for a long time Cubism has not been understood and that even today there are people who cannot see anything in it means nothing. I do not read English, an English book is a blank book to me. This does not mean that the English language does not exist. Why should I blame anyone but myself if I cannot understand what I know nothing about?" -Pablo Picasso.”

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Book:Picasso, Braque, Léger: masterpieces from Swiss collections
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“I have always believed and still believe that artists who live and work with spiritual values cannot and should not remain indifferent to the conflict in which the highest values of humanity and civilization are at stake.”

ShouldBelieveArtStillsSpiritualArtistValuesHumanityCivilizationConflictHighestStakesIndifferentAlways BelieveSpiritual Values
Book:Picasso's paintings, watercolors, drawings, and sculpture: a comprehensive illustrated catalogue, 1885-1973. Spanish Civil War, 1937-1939
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“What does it mean for a painter to paint in the manner of So-and-So or to actually imitate someone else? What's wrong with that? On the contrary, it's a good idea. You should constantly try to paint like someone else. But the thing is, you can't! You would like to. You try. But it turns out to be a botch... And it's at the very moment you make a botch of it that you're yourself.”

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Book:Picasso; the artist and his model: and other recent works
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“...why did Plato say that poets should be chased out of the republic? Precisely because every poet and every artist is an antisocial being. He's not that way because he wants to be; he can't be any other way.... and if he really is an artist it is in his nature not to want to be admitted, because if he is admitted it can only mean he is doing something which is understood, approved, and therefore old hat - worthless. Anything new, anything worth doing, can't be recognized.”

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Author:Pablo Picasso
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