Picasso... has he misled the world with this bewildered gaze?...

Picasso has entered a new year... leaving behind him seventy-five years brimming with vitality and activity, and with inventive, creative production...

In the pictures taken of him lately, his expressive glances arrest you, and you wonder: what does he mean by those glances?... What more does he want to say...? Has he misled the world with his art?... Is he truly the greatest artist of this age, or merely a passing mocker?...

In the city of "Málaga," in Spain, Picasso was born; in his youth he traveled to Paris, where he received some of the fundamentals of art. At first he was unable to sell a single canvas of his paintings, whereas today he resides in an elegant villa on the Riviera shore, and from its terrace governs the world

of art; whatever he makes, the critics account it the production of a genius, buyers pay him fantastic prices for it, and the exhibitions he holds of his paintings are thronged with spectators and critics...

Picasso revolted against the traditional measures in art, and staggered the world with canvases that might be called ugly...

His painting "The Dove of Peace" was a symbol of Communism's call to peaceful coexistence, and with it he expresses, at the same time, his pain over the fate of that coexistence...

And you ask yourself, as you review his paintings: is he the genius of the art of this age, or merely an amusing clown?...

Picasso adores destruction — the destruction of standards, of measures, of tastes... Taste sets limits on genius, and so do measures, in his opinion... The