Birth of a Genius vs. Reinvention as a Master

I had the opportunity to visit an exhibition on Picasso: Birth of a Genius in Beijing this past weekend. Pablo Ruiz Picasso (1881-1973) is probably the most important figure in 20th century art. The exhibition retraces the journey of an extraordinary man whose long art career spanned between the classical and modern worlds. In order to trace his stylistic evolution, his body of work is often divided into periods: early work, the Blue Period, the Rose Period, the African Period, Cubism, Neoclassicism, Surrealism, and later work.

The exhibition illustrates how the young prodigy wowed everyone with his creative 'Science and Charity' at a young age of sixteen by winning national acclaim at Madrid's Fine Arts Exhibition.

However, his focus on classical artistic expression was a very short-lived stint studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid. He subsequently not only succeeded in assimilating the lessons of ancient art and absorbing the newest expressions of his contemporaries, but also managed to develop new approaches which fundamentally changed the trajectory of the development of modern arts. Picasso was an avid innovator and much of what characterized his work was his own, entirely original style. Picasso was at the forefront of developing the new artistic style of Cubism between 1907 and 1908, a form which he refined continuously, but which remained prominent in his work throughout his life. 

With a career that spanned almost eight decades and included success in painting, sculpting, ceramics, poetry, stage design, and writing, his tendency to experiment with his craft is unsurprising. However, the extent to which his style changed in each discipline—particularly, in painting—is unlike that of any other artist. What’s truly remarkable is that he never stopped reinventing himself throughout his life. Here are some quotes which reflect his life philosophy:

• Success is dangerous. One begins to copy oneself and to copy oneself is more dangerous than copy others. It lead to sterility.
• I am always doing which I can not do, in order that I may learn how to do it.
• At the root of it, I am perhaps a painter without style. Style is often something that locks the painter into the same vision, the same technique, the same formula for years and years, sometimes for a whole life ... I myself stir too much, move too much. You see me here, and yet I have already changed, I am already somewhere else. I am never fixed, and that’s why I have no style. 
• Action is the foundational key to all success.

In today’s fast-moving world, there are a lot for us to learn from Picasso and to take his inspiration in that we need to be willing to try new ideas and adapt as technology changes the way we interact with the world. Keeping pace in a turbo-charged world not only means we need to continue to learn, but also often have to ignore the rules of the games, and sometimes going against the stream. 

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