My Top 15 Picasso Quotes
Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.
— Pablo Picasso
Art is a lie in the sense that it is an abstraction of reality, but in fact it can more true than reality, because it extract the essentials of the visual scene and discards the unnecessary. By focusing on the essential characteristics of the subject, it communicates much more clearly. This in fact is the essence of great paintings.
Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.
— Pablo Picasso
Young children have a natural desire to want to create art. They are free and creative, but this is often lost in adulthood as self criticism inhibits creativity. To paint well, be free and let your imagination wander.
Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. –Pablo Picasso
— Pablo Picasso
The concentration required for art puts you into a sort of meditative state in which the colors, the brush, the eye, and hands all become one.
Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not.
— Pablo Picasso
If someone had not seen what could be, the others would not have had anything to see and ask why. You’re not the only one Picasso.
Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.
— Pablo Picasso
That’s putting a bit too much pressure on yourself. True creation comes from feeling free and without the pressure of having to produce a good painting. When you do not put pressure on yourself, that is when you’ll do your best work.
There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into sun.
— Pablo Picasso
I think he is saying that a yellow spot won’t look like the sun unless you paint the spot intelligently and with knowledge. But that applies to everything in painting, so it’s not particularly profound.
Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.
— Pablo Picasso
If you can break the rules of painting and get away with it, they weren’t rules in the first place. Not one of Picasso’s best quotes.
I am always doing that which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
— Pablo Picasso
That’s pretty good.
Bad artists copy. Good artists steal.
— Pablo Picasso
Art is evolution not revolution. By necessity your art embodies all of that that has gone before.
There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.
— Pablo Picasso
All art is an abstraction by the definition of the word abstraction. If it were not an abstraction, you would not be able to tell the difference between the painting and the object itself.
The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.
— Pablo Picasso
There is no greater feeling than sharing your art with someone else who appreciates it.
Every now and then one paints a picture that seems to have opened a door and serves as a stepping stone to other things.
— Pablo Picasso
The process of learning involves long periods of stagnation, and sometimes periods of regression. But there comes a time when all of a sudden you make a leap forward and you art is better than it was before. The secret is to not be discouraged during those intervening periods of stagnation regression. Take comfort in the fact but that door will open. This is a Picasso quote that is well worth remembering when you are having a difficult time with your art.
The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a scrap of paper, from a passing shape, from a spider’s web.
— Pablo Picasso
This is another Picasso quote that I think is very important. This is the key to all great paintings. The emotion felt by the artist, if done well, will end up in the final painting and be shared by the viewer.
Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.
— Pablo Picasso
This is one of my favorite Picasso quotes. It actually has a scientific basis in how the visual systems in our brains work. You cannot create music in a painting, if the background noise is too loud. The trick is to figure out what is the music and what is the background noise.
The people who make art their business are mostly imposters.
— Pablo Picasso
That Picasso quote a bit much coming from an artist who spent so much time on self promotion!
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