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 one’s 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 →Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.
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In drawing, nothing is better than the first attempt.
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He can who thinks he can, and he can't who thinks he can't. This is an inexorable, indisputable law.
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You have to have an idea of what you are going to do, but it should be a vague idea.
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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
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