The Self-Importance of Picasso

The New York exhibition of a genius prompts the WILLIAM S. SCHLAMM question: What will the artist-nihilist burn for inspiration? Himself? Even Picasso is not enough

And what is one to do when the cliché happens to be the mot juste? Yes, on seeing Piscasso’s overwhelming Seventy-fifth Anniversary Exhibition, which the Museum of Modern Art will keep open in New York till September 8 (and the Art Institute of Chicago will show there from October 28 to December 8), the most pertinent thing I can say is really, “And how this man can paint if he wants to!” For the banality of this statement, I apologize. And, having apologized, I’d like to invite my reader on a journey into second thought.

WS

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William S. Schlamm

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The New York exhibition of a genius prompts the WILLIAM S. SCHLAMM question: What will the artist-nihilist burn for inspiration? Himself? Even Picasso is not enough

And what is one to do when the cliché happens to be the mot juste? Yes, on seeing Piscasso’s overwhelming Seventy-fifth Anniversary Exhibition, which the Museum of Modern Art will keep open in New York till September 8 (and the Art Institute of Chicago will show there from October 28 to December 8), the most pertinent thing I can say is really, “And how this man can paint if he wants to!” For the banality of this statement, I apologize. And, having apologized, I’d like to invite my reader on a journey into second thought.