We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth, at least the truth that is given us to understand.
[Todos sabemos que el arte no es verdad. El arte es una mentira que no acerca a la verdad, al menos, a aquella verdad que se nos da para entendar.]
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Spanish painter and sculptor
“Picasso Speaks: A Statement by the Artist,” interview with Marius de Zayas, The Arts (May 1923)
(Source)
Discussing cubism. Translated in Quote Magazine (21 Sep 1958) as "Art is not truth; art is the lie which makes us see the truth."
Quotations by:
Picasso, Pablo
I am always doing things I can’t do. That’s how I get to do them.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Spanish painter and sculptor
(Attributed)
Who Moved My Cheese? calendar, 2002
As an artist, all I need is my paints and brushes — and someone to drag me away when the canvas is done.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Spanish painter and sculptor
(Attributed)
Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Spanish painter and sculptor
(Attributed)
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
[Los ordenadores son inútiles. Sólo pueden darte respuestas.]
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Spanish painter and sculptor
(Attributed)
The above is a later paraphrase of the original, in William Fifield, "Pablo Picasso: A Composite Interview," The Paris Review (Summer/Fall 1964): "I feel I am nibbling on the edges of this world when I am capable of getting what Picasso means when he says to me -- perfectly straight-facedly -- later of the enormous new mechanical brains or calculating machines: 'But they are useless. They can only give you answers.' How easy and comforting to take these things for jokes—boutades!" More here.
There is no abstract art. You must always start with something. Afterward you can remove all traces of reality.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Spanish painter and sculptor
(Attributed)
If only we could pull out our brain and use only our eyes.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Spanish painter and sculptor
(Attributed)
On painting objectively. In Saturday Review (1 Sep 1956)
There are painters who transform the sun to a yellow spot, but there are others who with the help of their art and their intelligence, transform a yellow spot into the sun.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Spanish painter and sculptor
Quote Magazine (21 Mar 1965)
Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Spanish painter and sculptor
Quote Magazine (24 Mar 1957)
Also trans., "The chief enemy of creativity is 'good' taste."