Was Picasso A Genius?

If you think that Picasso was a genius, then you think like most people do.

The Book
Pic By Ordinary Malaysian

Not me.

And certainly not Marina Picasso.

To me, Picasso was crazed. Just look at his eyes! If only he was a little mad
then he could have had been alright.

Madness has a beauty to it. But not one who is crazed. Craziness
is exploitative and manipulative and simply ugly like Picasso was.

Marina Picasso likened her grandfather to a virus "to which we fell victim".

And the Picasso virus "was subtle and nearly undetectable. It was
a combination of promises not kept, abuse of power, mortification and above all,
incommunicativeness. It paralysed my father's will, warped my mother's
judgement, destroyed my grandmother's health.."

It also led to her brother's death.

"My brother Pablito, the plaything of my grandfather's sadism and indifference,
committed suicide at the age of twenty-four by drinking a little dose of bleach. I
found him lying in his own blood, his esophagus and larynx burned, his stomach
wrecked, his heart adrift...With this horrendous act he wanted to put an end
to suffering and neutralize the dangers that awaited him - and dangers that
awaited me too, for we were the stillborn descendants of Picasso, trapped in
a spiral of mocked hopes"

The virus also almost made the author herself mad.

That was the genius that Picasso's adoring public did not get to see.

How people can see Picasso's paintings as works of art of beauty, especially of
the later ones, just eludes me. Of course I am just a hoi polloi here.

To me, Picasso's paintings look like the vomit of a schizo who had lost his
mojoes whatever that means. But I suspect that so called experts - the aficionados,
critics and collectors have a lot to do with this. After all, they are the ones blessed
with the divine ability to appreciate art that we hoi polloi just aren't.

They also have a vested interest of course to perpetuate the myth.

As far as I am concerned, Picasso as a genius sounds like too much of a fraud
hoisted on an unsuspecting public by these so called experts who because of their
vested interests couldn't and can't do better for themselves than what they had
done and still do.

But seriously, Picasso? All right, maybe the earlier works.

Maybe I speak like a loser but this kid screamed (and not in appreciation) when
once shown a Picasso masterpiece! Ha ha. Can't remember which one though.

But then consider what Picasso himself thought of his admirers by what he himself
said of his own paintings "three pieces of crap smeared in the night" At least this once
he spoke like a genius.

For the rest of the times and of his works, he was just a fraud. Aye, don't get mad, you
are entitled to your own views. But a rich and famous one because humanity is
easily fooled and virused.  Again, aye..

"'Picasso: My Grandfather" by Marina PIcasso is sad but feisty. But don't trust me.
I am no book reviewer. I am crazed myself.