The Mystery of Picasso

Everything Picasso touched turned to art.

Pablo Picasso's true genius for art is displayed in a series of photographs of the famous artist eating lunch.  In just  a few photographs, we see Picasso finishing his trout lunch, petting his dachsund, and then reassembling the fish bones into  a ceramic picture.

While Picasso's clearly had a natural talent for art, he worked at it tirelessly.  As a child, he painted like a grown man.  But Picasso claims that he spent his entire adult life trying to learn how to paint as a child.  To describe Picasso's style as unique does him a disservice.  In Picasso's own words,

I am not in favor of following any determined school [of painting] because that only brings about a similarity among adherents." 1897

Picasso continuously reinvented and transformed his work and his artistic style, moving on to new styles and manners just as he seemed to be settling into a new form of work. 

Picasso was a genius not only in his art, but in his artistry.  He was a sculptor of many mediums, including fishbones (see story above), plaster, clay and even bicycle pieces.  He once turned a pair of bicycle handlebars and a leather seat into a sculpture of a bull's head with horns simply by rearranging the two items from their original relationship into a new one...unmistakably a bull.

Picasso left a lasting legacy of art, not only in the form of his physical works:  paintings, sculputres, prints, drawings and ceramics; but also in the way we think about art.  So what is the mystery of Picasso? 

There is no mystery.  Picasso worked hard, tirelessly and endlessly at his art and was ultimately able to transform his visual thinking into lasting representations for the rest of us to ponder and enjoy.