Picasso had enormous talent at age 15. He drew magnificently. Then he visited an art museum that was displaying African art. This experience changed him. He painted hideous trash for the rest of his life.
You know it’s trash. Maybe you are afraid to admit this in public. That is because art experts says it’s great stuff. You don’t want to be viewed as what they call a Philistine. You don’t want to admit that you would rather visit the Crystal Bridges art museum in Northwest Arkansas this spring to see the Norman Rockwell collection than to go to a musuem to see a Picasso collection.
Begin with this assumption: art experts are professionally perverse. They are also highly successful hustlers. They praise trash in order to put the shuck on the rubes — really rich rubes. The rubes dutifully get into bidding wars with each other. They fork over the money. “Good decision,” say the art experts who sell them the trash.
It’s a real-world version of the children’s story of the emperor with no clothes. There are lots of tailors out there who are ready to make money for closets full of the equivalent of paintings by toddlers. Doubt me? Read the story of 2-year-old Freddy Linsky.
Remember paint by numbers? They look better than any Picasso painting.
If you want to read a great book on Picasso’s con job, read E. Michael Jones’ Degenerate Moderns. Just ignore Chapter 9, which is silly. He blames Luther. Luther gets blamed for lots of bad things. Picasso isn’t one of them.
The man knew it was a gigantic con. He paid for everything by writing checks. He knew that people who received them would never cash them. His signature was worth too much. He lived for free.
If a Picasso panting were signed by some unknown, nobody would buy it except a degenerate art expert. It’s a huge con job. It has worked for decades. It’s the greater fool theory.
Picasso correctly suspected what was coming. There was one word he would never use. He would not let anyone use it in his presence. The word was “muerto.”
Death.
His death raised the value of his paintings . . . and his uncashed checks. But it does him no good.
Well,for your information, I have never liked Picasso. In fact, I have never liked what some call art that is not realistic, such as some of the sculptures that now grace our new libraries. As far as I'm concerned, a child can do better art with his/her finger paintings than these; and then, there is the disgusting stuff that is passed out as art. Look at G_d's art all about; it is beautiful and does not need "interpretation" to be enjoyed. Praise G_d from whom a true artist's hand flows.
Beauty is in the eye and mind of the beholder. If you have a twisted mind then you will perceive twisted art as enjoyable.
Many years ago when I was a teenager our high school was given a grant for some 'artist' to put a mural on the cafeteria wall. It was hideous; something about "man emerging from the shell of the machine age" or something just as asinine. Shortly after the mural was completed I was staring at it – trying to figure out what it was – when the chair of the Art Department came in and asked my thoughts. I said I didn't know what it was. He launched into a lengthy and detailed explanation of the meaning of the painting and the emotion the 'artist' was expressing then finished with, "So, now what do you think?" I replied, "If it must be explained then it isn't art it is trash and a complete waste of money." He said I needed to be educated and I told him he was a fraud.
I agree with Gloria.
There was a great UK television show called Faking It where they would take a person with no experience in a field, give them a crash course in it, and then see if they could fool a panel of three experts in a real-world situation. One great episode involved a very blue-collar house painter named Paul who they trained – in a matter of weeks – to paint modern, abstract art. He had a rather successful gallery showing and, as I recall, fooled at least 2 of the 3 experts.
those billionaires are not "rubes"- they are in on the scam
Yep, I think modern art is a big brainwashing scheme: its purpose is to get us to set aside common sense.
Modern art is a scheme to get us serfs to conform to, and confirm, opinions promulgated by our 'betters.'
The good news is that folks, especially the young, are waking up.
Were there professional art critics 500 years ago during the Italian Renaissance such as we have today? I doubt it. Yet great art was produced which didn't require translation of what the artists were really thinking and feeling. Maybe today's trashy art exists solely to provide employment for those who are otherwise unemployable except as art critics who pretend to translate the incomprehensible for rich and insecure collectors.
Seems to me there is also "art" by a horse and an elephant! Maybe I should paint a picture of a "pet rock" — if I can get it to stay still!
I never thought Picasso was a genius, his paintings awful and I had no idea he could draw at all until I read this article.
Gary, great article as usual. thanks.
I visited the Picasso Museum in Madrid – and saw a pile of communist garbage, especially his Guernica "painting" showing the fascist mass murder there. That murder did happen – caused by the planned dispersion of communist soldiers into the general population.
I always thought Picasso paintings were stupid. I don’t understand why these artists are called “genius”.
Monet was the real artist…..I can't afford his originals but have four lovely copies in my home.
I actually like those pictures the 2-year-old painted! I could see them as accent pieces in the right setting.