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Art Quotes by Pablo Picasso

129 Art quotes by Pablo Picasso

All Art quotes Pablo Picasso’s page

Pablo Picasso claims art is a lie that helps us see truth. He says art should wage war against the enemy, not just decorate rooms. He jokes that even God is an artist who keeps trying new creations, and that fame can feel like a punishment from a higher power.

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Sex and art are the same thing.

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This idea of art for art's sake is a hoax.

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Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.

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Bad artists copy. Good artists steal.

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Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.

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I paint what I think, not what I see.

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All art is subversive.

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Art is lies that tell the truth.

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Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.

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Art is not truth; art is the lie which makes us see the truth.

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I don't say everything, but I paint everything.

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The people who make art their business are mostly imposters.

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We now know that Art is not the truth... but rather a way of approaching the truth.

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“You have to know how to be vulgar. Paint with four-letter words.”

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In art, practice always comes before theory.

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If I knew what the meaning of art was, I wouldn't tell you.

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When I paint a woman in an armchair, the armchair is there to show illness and death-or as a protection.

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The artist is a receptacle for emotions that come from all over the place: from the sky, from the earth, from a…

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The people no longer seek consolation in art. But the refined people, the rich, the idlers seek the new, the extraordinary, the…

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My whole life has been nothing more than a continuous struggle against Reaction and the death of art.

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They'll sell you thousands of greens. Veronese green and emerald green and cadmium green and any sort of green you like; but…

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The artist must know the manner whereby to convince others of the truthfulness of his lies.

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As far as I am concerned, a painting speaks for itself. What is the use of giving explanations, when all is said…

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I don't own any of my own paintings because a Picasso original costs several thousand dollars and that's a luxury I cannot…

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We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth at least the truth that…

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The different styles I have been using in my art must not be seen as an evolution, or as steps towards an…

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All human beings are born with the same creative potential. Most people squander theirs away on a million superfluous things. I expend…

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“When I was a child my mother said to me, 'If you become a soldier, you'll be a general. If you become…

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Museums are just a lot of lies, and the people who make art their business are mostly imposters. We have infected the…

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What do you think an artist is? An imbecile who has only his eyes if he's a painter, or ears if he's…

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...art is something subversive. It's something that should not be free. Art and liberty, like the fire of Prometheus, are things that…

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Paintings are but research and experiment. I never do a painting as a work of art. All of them are researches. I…

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“What do you think an artist is? An imbecile who only has eyes, if he is a painter, or ears if he…

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When you begin a picture you often make some pretty discoveries. You must be on guard against these. Destroy the thing, do…

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What do you think an artist is An imbecile who has only his eyes if he is a painter, or his ears…

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But when I am alone, I do not have the effrontery to consider myself an artist at all, not in the grand…

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...why did Plato say that poets should be chased out of the republic? Precisely because every poet and every artist is an…

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The academic teaching on beauty is false. We have been misled, but so completely misled that we can no longer find so…

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We might adapt for the artist the joke about there being nothing more dangerous than instruments of war in the hands of…

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The people no longer seek consolation in art. But the refined people, the rich, the idlers seek the new, the extraordinary, the…

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More by Pablo Picasso

Art isn't done to decorate apartments, but to wage war against the enemy.

When I haven't any blue I use red.

The Parthenon is really only a farmyard over which someone put a roof; colonades and sculptures were added because there were people in Athens…

By amusing myself with all these games, all this nonsense, all these picture puzzles, I became famous... I am only a public entertainer who…

If I paint a hammer and sickle people may think it is a representation of Communism, but for me it is only a hammer…

One never knows what one is going to do. One starts a painting and then it becomes something quite different.

Now there is fame! Of all - hunger, misery, the incomprehension by the public - fame is by far the worst. It is the…

It takes a long time to become young.

We all know that Art is not truth. Art is a lie that makes us realize truth at least the truth that is given…

You see these thick curtains shut out the daylight: artificial light suits me a great deal better; it's absolutely steady, and much more exciting.

The best calculation is the absence of calculation. Once you have attained a certain level of recognition, others generally figure that when you do…

Action is the foundational key to all success. --Pablo Picasso

The earth doesn't have a housekeeper to do the dusting.

God is really only another artist. He invented the giraffe, the elephant and the cat. He has no real style, He just goes on…

A baby will make love stronger, days shorter, nights longer, bankroll smaller, home happier, clothes shabbier, the past forgotten, and the future worth living…