Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth

Today I learn something very interesting from my Spanish teacher. Normally, she would teach me a unit in my textbook, but this evening she talked about Picasso.

Perhaps, I do not need to introduce him to you. He is very famous for his paintings. However, I guess many of you here do not agree with those art experts that his paintings are magnificently beautiful. I did not, either.  But it was the story of 10 hours ago. As I stated above, my teacher told me something about his paintings and it really made me wonder.

But I will skip the details of her lecture [sorry, but I need to have something up my sleeve). If you want to know, I think Google provides us a very wide range of choices. The main point here is that after her lecture, I still do not find any beauty in his paintings [ironic, I guess]. The only thing that I got from that very interesting lecture was the understanding of his paintings. Picasso is always said to have created very incomprehensible paintings. He is nothing like some artists that we are familiar with, such as Leonardo Da Vinci, or my favorite Van Gogh. To normal eyes like ours, Picasso’s art in the cubism period is very hard to comprehend. However, today, my teacher made his paintings more understandable. He was not drawing meaninglessly. Every detail in his works made sense. And only when you have some decent knowledge about art can you understand and find them priceless.

[Still I do not find it beautiful]

I have always wondered why people pay millions of dollar to buy a painting [except for some investment cases]. Some of the paintings are not really beautiful. But now I understand. Those rich people, like us, do not see any beauty in those marvelous paintings. The only reason why they accept to pay a lot for those arts is that they understand them and we do not. When they place a painting of Picasso on the wall, they are not showing to the world its beauty. They are showing to the world that they understand the art, the meaning behind it. The painting is not a source of decoration, but a certificate of knowledge because only people who have enough knowledge would pay for that. It has become a tool to emphasize the gap between those who have known and those who have not.

 “Art is a lie that makes us realize the truth” – Picasso.

I have to admit that I really want to have a Picasso’s painting in my room now. But I am afraid that I still do not have enough knowledge about his paintings to have one.

Maybe one day.

Maybe never.

Kz