Solitude lies at the lowest depth of the human condition. Man is the only being who feels himself to be alone and the only one who is searching for the Other.
Octavio PazRead
Picasso is what is going to happen and what is happening; he is posterity and archaic time, the distant ancestor and our next-door neighbor. Speed permits him to be two places at once, to belong to all the centuries without letting go of the here and now.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Picasso's work bridges the gap between past and present, allowing multiple interpretations across time.
Octavio Paz highlights the timelessness and duality of Picasso's art, suggesting that it exists simultaneously within the context of history and contemporary life. Picasso embodies both an ancient heritage and a modern sensibility, showing how art transcends time, allowing us to connect with both the past and present through his work.
Themes
PicassoArtTimelessnessCreativityHistory
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about modern art and its relationship to the past.
More from Octavio Paz
All quotes →By suppressing differences and peculiarities, by eliminating different civilizations and cultures, progress weakens life and favors death
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Poetry is not a genre in harmony with the modern world; its innermost nature is hostile or indifferent to the dogmas of modern times, progress and the cult of the future.
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Man, even man debased by the neocapitalism and pseudosocialism of our time, is a marvelous being because he sometimes speaks. Language is the mark, the sign, not of his fall but of his original innocence. Through the Word we may regain the lost kingdom and recover powers we possessed in the far-distant past.
Octavio PazRead
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