One of my art teachers showed me the following (or a version of it), and I have since found several sources on the internet, but none that are truly solid. I don't know if this is real or invented:
QUOTE |
"From the moment that art is no longer the sustenance that nourishes the best, the artist may exteriorize his talent in all sorts of experiments with new formulas, in endless caprices and fancy, in all the expedients of intellectual charlatanism. In the arts, people no longer seek consolation, nor exaltation. But the refined, the rich, the indolent, distillers of quintessence seek the new, the unusual, the original, the extravagant, the shocking. And I, since cubism and beyond, I have satisfied these gentlemen and these critics with all the various whims which have entered my head, and the less they understood them, the more they admired. By amusing myself at these games, at all these tomfooleries, at all these brain-busters, riddles and arabesques, I became famous quite rapidly. And celebrity means for a painter: sales increment, money, wealth. Today, as you know, I am famous and very rich. But when completely alone with myself, I haven't the nerve to consider myself an artist in the great and ancient sense of the word. There have been great painters like Giotto, Titian, Rembrandt and Goya. I am only a public entertainer who has understood his time. This is a bitter confession, mine, more painful indeed than it may seem, but it has the merit of being sincere." PABLO PICASSO (FROM: ORIGIN 12, January 1964 Cid Corman, Editor Kyoto, Japan.; cited by Artcompasas Amsterdam: GOTOBUTTON BM_1_ https://www.euronet.nl/users/artcompas/index.html ) |
I don't know if it is real or fake, but it would not surprise me if it were real. I don't know that much about Picasso or the type of person he was, but it could be an act of humility. How many great writers considered themselves to be a great writer? We are our own worst critic, and I think that by his saying that he does not see himself as a true artist might have been a humble spirit inside of him. Maybe he felt that by being rich and popular while still in the midst of his craft that he was only entertaining.
On the flip side, he does say that he "played the games" and gave into their whims. He may not have realized that he was creating a new form of art, and therefore did not see it as art.
Name: Bruce
Comments: Just for your information, the Picasso confession is genuine. Here is a site link to Source 9 a book shop that has for sale the April 1964 issue of Origin magazine that contains the confession and discussion of it by Sir Herbert Read.
Name: Jake
Comments: The Picasso confession was printed in full and by itself on the last page of LIFE Magazine's December 27th, 1968 issue -- an issue devoted entirely to Picasso.
Source 1: LIFE Magazine, December 27, 1968