My whole life has been nothing more than a continuous struggle against Reaction and the death of art.
Pablo PicassoRead
When you begin a picture you often make some pretty discoveries. You must be on guard against these. Destroy the thing, do it over several times. In each destroying of a beautiful discovery, the artist does not really suppress it, but rather condenses it, makes it more substantial. What comes out in the end is the result of discarded finds. Otherwise you become your own connoisseur.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Creating art involves making mistakes and discarding ideas to find deeper truths.
Pablo Picasso emphasizes the importance of embracing the process of creation in art, where initial discoveries often lead to deeper insights. He encourages artists to be willing to destroy their early beautiful ideas in order to refine and enhance their work, resulting in a more substantial final piece. This iterative process of creation is essential to avoid becoming overly critical of oneβs own creations and to foster genuine artistic expression.
Themes
ArtCreationProcessDiscoveryIteration
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about creativity at the art gallery, one could say, 'As Picasso noted, each discarded idea in art leads to more substantial art.'
More from Pablo Picasso
All quotes βPainting is just another way of keeping a diary.
Pablo PicassoRead
In drawing, nothing is better than the first attempt.
Pablo PicassoRead
He can who thinks he can, and he can't who thinks he can't. This is an inexorable, indisputable law.
Pablo PicassoRead
You have to have an idea of what you are going to do, but it should be a vague idea.
Pablo PicassoRead
I paint the way someone bites his fingernails; for me, painting is a bad habit because I don't know nor can I do anything else.
Pablo PicassoRead
Similar quotes
Perspective is a most subtle discovery in mathematical studies, for by means of lines it causes to appear distant that which is near, and large that which is small.
Leonardo Da VinciRead
My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport.
Steve MccurryRead
More varied than any landscape was the landscape in the sky, with islands of gold and silver, peninsulas of apricot and rose against a background of many shades of turquoise and azure.
Cecil BeatonRead
I took a straight picture that made me look like a thirty-year-old Italian who'd kill anybody who said something against his mother.
Jack KerouacRead
I used to think there was something dirty about being paid for something which is a sacred thing to do. I can't disconnect the act of writing music from the act of prayer. If anyone tries to stop me working, it feels like someone is trying to stop me from taking communion.
John TavenerRead
The whole world of publishing is moving to electronic, but when you put a poem on a screen and you increase the type size, the shape of a poem changes.
Billy CollinsRead