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Artist Quotes by Pablo Picasso

193 Artist quotes by Pablo Picasso

All Artist quotes Pablo Picasso’s page

A hammer and sickle can appear on a canvas, but Picasso says it is just a tool, not a political symbol. He also believes art is a lie that helps us see deeper truths, and that a painting often changes into something unexpected while it is being made. These ideas show how he sees art as a force, not just decoration.

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Good artists copy, great artists steal.

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Sex and art are the same thing.

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Art is a lie that makes us realize truth.

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

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Art is the elimination of the unnecessary.

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In the end there is only Matisse.

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Art is lies that tell the truth.

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Art is a finger up the bourgeoisie ass.

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One must act in painting as in life, directly.

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

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If I could say this I wouldn't have to paint.

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

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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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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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When I was a kid I drew like Michelangelo. It took me years to learn to draw like a kid.

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A painter is a man who paints what he sells; an artist, on the other hand, is a man who sells what…

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Painting isn't made for the decoration of apartments; it is a weapon to be used offensively and defensively against the enemy.

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Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist while still achieving milestones and outcomes as required by…

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Drawing is a kind of hypnotism: one looks in such a way at the model, that he comes and takes a seat…

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There ought to be an absolute dictatorship... a dictatorship of painters... a dictatorship of one painter... to suppress all those who have…

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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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When you start with a portrait and search for a pure form, a clear volume, through successive eliminations, you arrive inevitably at…

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The goal I proposed myself in making cubism? To paint and nothing more... with a method linked only to my thought... Neither…

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How could Michelangelo have seen his David in a block of marble? Man began to make images only because he discovered them…

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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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Matisse makes a drawing, then he makes a copy of it. He copies it five times, ten times, always clarifying the line.…

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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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If I had known there was such a thing as Islamic Calligraphy, I would never have started to paint. I have strived…

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What does it mean for a painter to paint in the manner of So-and-So or to actually imitate someone else? What's wrong…

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In one way or another, I always marked my pictures. But there were times when I put my signature on the back…

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Do you think it interests me that this painting represents two figures? These two figures existed, they exist no more. The sight…

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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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Whatever the source of emotion that drives me to create, I want to give it a form which has some connection with…

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You know, it's just like being a peddler. You want two breasts? Well, here you are -- two breasts. We must see…

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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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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…