Oh man! Sin away, Fred! I'm learning so much by reading your postings. What can be more important than feeling someone's passion through what they write? Or paint?

CarolC...For me, it holds no great relevance that Picasso was or wasn't a scam artist. Whether someone bought one of this paintings for 93 Million speaks more to the person who bought it than to Picasso. Having said that, if he was indeed influenced by how much people were willing to pay for his work and whether that was reflected in what and how he created pieces, again, I have less interest in that than I do with whether when I'm in front of one of his works, it affects me.

I remember going to the Picasso Museum in Paris for the first time and feeling overwhelmed by the amount of work there. What happened to me, as I careened from room to room is that I was actually able to zero in on the paintings, or sketches, or pottery or whatever, that seemed to rise above the rest. It forced me to absorb and edit rather better simply because of the myriad choices at my disposal.

Again, reading what Fred Miller wrote, I realized that it isn't my mind that is first engaged to works of art. It's my eye, and then my gut. I still feel this is both appropriate and beneficial. To begin "knowing" art through critisism, or any other historical research first would, I think, either confuse or overwhelm me. There is something to be said in letting the piece speak first, either loudly or softly, and if I'm then moved to discover more about either it or the creator, so be it. If not, then I still walk away with what for me is the essence of the exercise.

Under this kind of approach, what tends to be left out in the rain (would they were) are the unmade beds, dissected lambs, and shelves holding glasses of water. They don't speak for themselves, and therefore need the attached artist to explain (and validate) their existence as art. For me, this is lesser art, if I can bring myself to use that term at all.

For all his "scamming" Picasso didn't need to explain, and neither did Van Gogh, Hopper, Matisse, Da Vinci, etc. Their art spoke for itself..xx..e