Picasso or Dali?

 

Picasso had earned his place in art history even before cubism - his blue and rose periods (1900 - 06) show that he was capable of painting in a straightforward representational style like a master even in his early 20s. Throughout his life he produced drawings, etchings and occasionally paintings which returned to a straightforward representational style (his return to classicism after World War 1 was a rare mis-step in 7 decades of work) - whatever a Picasso artwork looked like, it looked exactly as he wanted it to look. Unlike Dali he remained firm in his opposition to Franco, and refused to return to Spain while the regime remained in power. He became honorary curator of the Prado, but sadly was never to return to see the works which had fired his youthful imagination.

 

Mind you, Dali's biography is more interesting (the Shameful Life of Salvador Dali by Ian Gibson is well worth reading), although Picasso was a pretty colourful character himself.

 

I could say Neil Young is a better guitarist than Ritchie Blackmore because Blackmore is moody.

 

Difficult to dissociate the man from his work

 

Dali tried his hardest to act eccentric and get public notice, Picasso almost lived as a recluse in his last three decades

 

I still like Dali (he was also diddling in sculpture), but he does not comùe to Picasso's shoulder.

 

Picasso started cubism and abstract and was a precurssor , the others followed