A Weapon

What exactly is an artist, in your opinion? An idiot who, if he is a painter, only had eyes to see and if he is a musician, only had ears to hear, and if he is a poet, only has a lyre on which to strum the different humours in his heart...?


Not a bit of it! He is also a political entity, who lives in constant awareness of the destructive, burning or joyous events of the world around him and altogether is a product of these events...I tell you, painting was not invented to decorate the insides of houses! It is a weapon....

- Pablo Picasso 1945