A lesson in confidence, or perhaps the secret to genius.
I turned on the TV the other day and caught a documentary called “The Mystery of Picasso,” which is largely filmed from the other side of a transparent canvas, behind which the man is painting. You watch the process from a blank canvas to a finished work, as the image is transformed again and again. Accompanying the action is music that is composed to follow the progress of the picture, timed with every brush stroke. Between pieces, you might hear Picasso and the filmmaker chatting briefly.
After one piece is going not as well as he had hoped, Picasso abruptly stops and announces that he is just going to leave it as is. The filmmaker asks innocently if that might be “awkward” for the public. Picasso replies (in translation), “I have never thought about the public. I’m too old to start now. Besides, all I ever wanted to show was the unexpectedness of naked truth.”
We are all dreamers, and creators, but I think it is the freaks of this world, the ones who aren’t afraid to put that truth out there regardless of who’s looking, or listening, that make the world turn. Or at least make it interesting.
May 21, 2007 at 10:54 am |
I’d be cautious about taking Picasso as a role model beyond that. My drawing instructor says he was extremely vain, hating the only man whom he thought rivaled him in artistic ability. I’m not surprised he never thought of the public.