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Painting Quotes by Pablo Picasso

104 Painting quotes by Pablo Picasso

All Painting quotes Pablo Picasso’s page

A canvas that changes into something unexpected shows how art can surprise us. The quotes discuss different styles, the mystery of what makes a painter, and how cubism tries to paint thoughts instead of pictures. They also note that every work, good or bad, is worth looking at.

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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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One must act in painting as in life, directly.

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I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them.

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A painting only lives in the eye of the beholder

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I paint what I think, not what I see.

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Painting is just another way of keeping a diary.

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Painting is a jeu d'esprit.

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If there were only one truth, you couldn't paint a hundred canvases on the same theme.

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“Painting is not made to decorate apartments. It's an offensive and defensive weapon against the enemy.”

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

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Who sees the human face correctly: the photographer, the mirror, or the painter?

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I see for others... in order to put on canvas the sudden apparitions which come to me.

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Titian, Rembrandt and Goya were the great painters. I am only a public clown.

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What a trade! Poor painters! They always wish to be understood, and they are analysed instead.

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People want Art. And they are given it. But the less Art there is in painting the more painting there is.

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Braque always said that the only thing that counts, in painting, is the intention, and it's true. What counts is what one…

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Paint a rainbow inside of you, paint a rainbow, let your smile shine through. When it's cold and gray, push the clouds…

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I have a horror of people who speak about the beautiful. What is the beautiful? One must speak of problems in painting!

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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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My mother said to me, 'If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will…

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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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“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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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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Photography has arrived at the point where it is capable of liberating painting from all literature, from the anecdote, and even from…

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What might be taken for a precocious genius is the genius of childhood. When the child grows up, it disappears without a…

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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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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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What might be taken for a precocious genius is the genius of childhood. When the child grows up, it disappears without a…

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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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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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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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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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Everyone wants to understand art. Why not try to understand the song of a bird? Why does one love the night, flowers,…

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When I am finished painting, I paint again for relaxation.

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Painting is not done to decorate apartments. It is an instrument of war.

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Painting is stronger than me, it makes me do it's bidding.

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The painter goes through states of fullness and evaluation. That is the whole secret of art.

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Are we to paint what's on the face, what's inside the face, or what's behind it?

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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…