Artists Learning from Artists 1: Be a D*ck like Picasso
This is the first in a series of articles exploring famous artists’ lives and career trajectories and what we can learn from them and apply in our own lives, based on their biographies, autobiographies, personal diaries, or correspondences.
Innovator. Genius. Heartbreaker. Narcissist. Iconoclast. Legend. What does the life and career of the one, the only Pablo Diego Ruiz y Picasso have to teach today’s artists about creativity, marketing, friendship, and life?
Recently, I finished reading “Picasso: Creator and Destroyer” a biography of the artist by Arianna Huffington and it terrified me as much as it inspired me. His brilliance, creativity, drive, and passion were palpable — but so, too, were his cruelty, pettiness, narcissism, and coldness.
No artist unnerves me quite like Picasso.
Perhaps, in some past or parallel reality, I was his student or creative concubine. His ego was second to none, and from a young age, the world was at his beck and call. His doting mother and art-teacher father both nurtured and bowed to his genius from a young age.
Excelling brilliantly in the visual arts, he was excused from mastering other subjects, and so he existed in somewhat of a vacuum of his own genius and personal relevance, and an understanding of the world outside of his own was never really a priority. Because of these factors, Picasso possessed the kind of strength and confidence in his abilities that is, in my opinion, rare in artists. He took this to an extreme in his later life as his destructive tendencies outweighed his creative tendencies.
Prior to reading his biography, I had both looked up to Picasso and felt slightly unnerved by his work — particularly his later work. My father — the first person to introduce me to him— adored Picasso, and like so many others, he was almost breathless in his admiration of the artist’s rare and rarefied genius.
I learned about his Rose period, his Blue period, and his love affair with the surrealists — and of course, his collaboration with Braque and the invention of cubism. My father took me to see originals, bursting with joy and enthusiasm when he told me about Picasso. I thought no one could live up to Picasso, at least, no one who was merely human.
Huffington’s biography shows a different side of the artist, and maybe it’s just the dark side of Picasso’s genius — the other side of the coin. Fleshing him out considerably, she shows how cruel and thoughtless Picasso could be — and terrifyingly, how he would manipulate others for no other reason than to watch them suffer. He was always in control, it seemed — a masterful creator and destroyer.
“Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.” ― Pablo Picasso
He pitted his lovers against one another, fueling his massive ego and causing extreme harm to those he claimed to love. He refused to help people — even his own family and close friends and even left a few suicides in his wake. In the end, he wrought his destruction on himself, and pictures of him at the end of his life show a miserable man with black, empty eyes. True to his Scorpio nature, he stung himself, too. Destroyer, indeed.
And yet, as dark as his cruelty got, his light shined even brighter. His talent and charisma were evident from a young age, and his extraordinary creative output gifted the world with some of the most expressive work of the 20th century. He was a co-inventor of a new art movement, Cubism, and had as many as 8 different creative “periods” in his career. He experimented throughout— with different materials, modalities, and types of work, creating sets for the theater, sculptures out of bicycle seats, and a vast array of ceramic pieces.
Picasso was undoubtedly a complex individual who led an extraordinary life. Love him or hate him, it’s very hard to stay neutral about someone who was such a force of nature.
Here are my take-aways of the lessons that modern artists can learn from someone Picasso.
- Believe in yourself and your art: The phrase “believe in yourself” has become so commonplace as to almost be meaningless. What does “believing in oneself” actually mean? How does it actually feel?
Believing in one's art means standing behind it 100%. It means not looking outside of ourselves for validation, or cowering when someone critiques our work. It means that to ourselves, our work is amazingly significant, deeply relevant, and totally unique.
It means we find wholeness and quality and worth in our work BEFORE we bring it out to the masses. It means having an internal sense of our own VALUE— instead of looking for it externally. Most of us didn’t have the immense creative support or the savant-like talent Picasso did: a family that believed in and saw his genius, a mother who catered to his every whim, a father who taught him art. But it’s your right to live grounded in the knowledge that YOU ARE really fucking good and that if others don’t believe in you or your art — they simply are not educated or enlightened enough to understand. It’s your job to educate them.
“When I was a child my mother said to me, ‘If you become a soldier, you’ll be a general. If you become a monk, you’ll be the pope.’ Instead I became a painter and wound up as Picasso.”― Pablo Picasso
2. Don’t cater to the art world — have the art world cater to you: Although Picasso had his first art show at the age of 13 and was generally accepted by the art community with open arms, he did experience harsh criticism during his long career. And he did not care — he simply kept on creating, without even responding to naysayers. And now, only history can judge Picasso — and we all know history sees his art through rose-colored glasses. As I see it, many artists and creative types unconsciously fall victim to being controlled by galleries, record labels, and film producers.
“The people who make art their business are mostly imposters.” ― Pablo Picasso
Although it is true that many times the powers that be do present artists with certain opportunities and financial success, it’s also a reality that many artists are held back by the limitations of those on the business side of things, or worse, feel that these institutions are ultimately the gatekeepers of creative prowess.
Instead, realize that your heart and soul, not the outside world, determine the value you bring to the world through your art.
3. Master your marketing: Picasso was not only a master painter, he was a masterful marketer. Standing in his own conviction that he was the best, he also had the tenacity, drive, and creative intelligence to know the best ways to market himself. Picasso was a masterful opportunist who never shied away from self-promotion, painting, and meeting other artists in taverns and local bars. He relocated from Spain to Paris early in his career, where the opportunity for connections in the art world was infinitely greater.
“The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.”
― Pablo Picasso
It’s here that he met Gertrude Stein, a champion of the arts in general, and of Picasso in particular. Picasso was also one of the first to take advantage of “influencer marketing” when he painted Gertrude Stein — and filled her home with his art-knowing she had an abundance of connections in the art world. Ultimately, he was so good at marketing by the end of his life that the Picasso brand was ubiquitous with genius, quality, and talent. I am sure many advertising executives would die to have the brands they represent garner such esteem!
So, artists, don’t shy away from marketing yourselves, and don’t feel like marketing or self-promotion are below you — or that your art should speak for itself. Even Picasso, arguably the greatest artist of the 20th Century, might not be as prolific if he hadn’t also been a savvy self-promoter.
4. Allow your work (and yourself) to transform: I am hard-pressed to think of another well-known artist whose work transformed so much in their career. Picasso’s work changed so much that it is defined by as many as 8 completely different periods, defined by vastly different stylistic, compositional, and technical approaches. And yet, they are all unmistakably Picasso.
“I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it.” ― Pablo Picasso
True to his Scorpio nature, Picasso never shied away from abrupt changes in his artwork or allowed himself to be boxed in. His massive talent and ego gave him the confidence to allow and promote these different types of art- instead of being pressured into creating the same type of work for galleries to sell.
You don’t have to be Picasso to allow your work to shift and change over time, to experiment with different styles and approaches, or try new techniques and mediums. Indeed, allowing work to transform is the essence of true creativity, and it can only make your work stronger.
5. Experiment: There is nothing quite like experimentation to inspire the creative muse. Experimenting continually with different mediums, different techniques, and different combinations of materials gave Picasso an edge not many artists have. His experimentation (and collaboration with Braque), eventually gave rise to Cubism — one of the most groundbreaking art movements of the 20th Century.
“Others have seen what is and asked why. I have seen what could be and asked why not. ” ― Pablo Picasso
Experimentation in art can take many different forms, depending on your medium and your creative process. Because experimentation is inherently process and not product oriented, it can yield some very interesting and creative results that breathe new life into old art forms. So, particularly if you’re stuck or blocked, put on your proverbial lab coat and see how much of a mess you can make by combining all of your art supplies in new and interesting ways.
6. Collaborate: Picasso was such an egoist, it might be surprising to see collaboration on this list. But Picasso was part of one of the most influential creative duos of the 20th century with fellow painter and close friend Georges Braque. This pair was inseparable, and Picasso once reminisced: “Almost every evening, either I went to Braque’s studio or Braque came to mine. Each of us had to see what the other had done during the day.”
Picasso and Braque had opposite, but complementary personalities: Braque was reserved whereas Picasso was flamboyant, Braque was private and introverted while Picasso loved fame and was outspoken, Braque favored reason and balance, Picasso reveled in intense emotional expression. The differences helped each artist push the other into uncomfortable, new, and expansive territory— and birthed Cubism in the process.
“We [Picasso and Braque], were living in Montmartre, we saw each other every day. We were like two mountaineers roped together.” ― Georges Braque
Two minds are better than one, especially when they are so complementary and aligned. This type of friendship and creative collaboration can provide the perfect petri dish for new inventions, novel creations, and pushing oneself in new directions creatively. So often, certainly for painters and writers, when most of the work is done solo, the importance of collaboration and getting feedback from other artists can be brushed aside in favor of more solo studio time.
But as Picasso and Braque proved, a good friend you can trust for honest feedback on your work is worth his weight in gold. And you might even invent an art movement.
7. Stay connected to your “creative innocence”/inner child and don’t stop creating: Sometimes perfectionism can enter the creative mind and put a damper on the innocent, raw, creative energy of the inner child who simply wants to express, play, and experiment. And often, that perfectionism can also lead to creative blocks. Apparently, Picasso did not struggle with these issues, or at least he was not extensively weighed down by them, as he produced 50,000 artworks in his lifetime averaging 2 pieces per day.
“Ah, good taste! What a dreadful thing! Taste is the enemy of creativeness.”
― Pablo Picasso
Even as artists, sometimes letting the creative flow move through us can feel intimidating. We can feel pressure to produce and feel overwhelmed by the expectations of others about what our output should be. But allowing yourself to play, too, is vital to the creative process.
Messing around with some Play-doh, drawing with crayons, or even playing Barbies with your kids are all ways to nurture the inner child and allow her to express herself.
Any activity where there is no goal except for having fun will feed your inner child and inner creative spirit. And if you’re interested in doing a deeper dive into healing the inner child and staying inspired, check out the classic book, The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. She provides an excellent step-by-step guide for flourishing as an artist and healing issues that might be preventing self-expression.
“All children are artists. The problem is how to remain an artist once he grows up.”
― Pablo Picasso
Picasso was a complex person — and there will truly be no other artist like him. We may never understand his life or some of his choices — but without a doubt, he left behind a legacy, a legacy that artists will be learning from for generations to come.
