Pablo Picasso explaining his post WWI views on art

'Repeatedly I am asked to explain how my painting evolved. To me there is no past or future in art. If a work of art cannot live always in the present it must not be considered at all. The art of the Greeks, of the Egyptians, of the great painters who lived in other times, is not an art of the past; perhaps it is more alive today than it ever was. Art does not evolve by itself, the ideas of people change and with them their mode of expression. ' -- Pablo Picasso, 1923 '

Pablo Picasso explaining his post WWI views on art in an interview with Marius de Zayas, originally published as Picasso Speaks, The Arts (New York) May 1923, pp.315-326 and approved in translation in Herbert B. Chipp, Theories of Modern Art: A source Book by Artists and Critics, Berkley University of California Press, 1968

Pablo Picasso, Autoportrait au Joueur de Guitare, Paris 1915-16.
© Succession Picasso / DACS 2004