Sir, - "Do I have this night" Kevin Myers (March 26th) doesn't like Pablo Picasso? I want to make sure, because I'm not familiar with the phraseology of modern art criticism. Maybe "That creature was one of the great calamities of 20th century art" is meant as praise? No. I don't think so. I surmise that Mr Myers really doesn't like Pablo Picasso.
Grumpy Pablo would be delighted. The "high priest of modernism" loved to provoke and irritate. Picasso jeered at his admirers. Mr Myers quotes Picasso to the effect that he's fooled "the rich, the professional idlers", who doted on his paintings. Yet, it would be hard to think of an artist more proud and confident of his artistry. I suspect that Picasso was having a go at his admirers as he frequently had a go at his agents. I gather that Pablo was a difficult man to do business with. He didn't believe the rules were made for him, because of his superb artistry.
Curiously, on the very page with Kevin's extreme critique of Pablo Picasso is a letter that proposes a balanced view of another giant of the past, Isaac Newton Dr Reville's letter suggests that one of Newton's famous quotes, often noted as an expression of his humility, was in fact a veiled attack on a scientific rival. I agree. Newton was about as humble as a peacock. The quotes that make Newton appear modest are probably no more than his attempts to ingratiate himself, to give the appearance of humble and gracious acceptance of the world's awe at his extraordinary gifts. Isaac Newton was apparently a fairly nasty man, yet as a physicist I cherish him as one of the giants of science, a human mind without equal. But, I'm not required to believe Sir Isaac in that least reliable mode of communication, self description. I suggest that this same critical suspicion of motive be applied to Pablo Picasso's self description.
As I cherish the memory of Isaac Newton, I also cherish Pablo Picasso. They've both given me gifts. My heart was touched, I had a small new glimpse of humanity, when I first saw Picasso's Blind Minotaur.
with White Fluttering Dove from the Vollard Suite. I couldn't decipher the signature. I was surprised when I investigated, to discover that it was by Picasso. I had thought that I didn't like modern art, and certainly I'd like "the high priest of modernism" least of all. I won't suggest that Kevin Myers would share my experience, but I do suggest that he accept Picasso's artistry without dwelling on his peculiar and disagreeable need to take a nasty jab at his admirers. Like Isaac Newton and the rest of us, Pablo Picasso could not be trusted when he was speaking about himself.
"I do not have the effrontery to consider myself an artist at all". Well, OK Pablo. He wanted us to see him as "a mountebank", and he lived his life to assure that we'd believe him in that. I do believe him; he was "a public clown, a mountebank". Maybe he fooled me, and millions of others, about his art; if so he did a grand job of it. I don't believe him at all when he denies his artistry, but I'm sure he would be delighted that Kevin Myers does. - Yours, etc.,
Fumbally Lane,
New Street,
Dublin 8.