“…Yet whose powerful creative love shines like an angry light in the twentieth century.”
Now, love cannot be angry. Anger is destructive, love is creative. Anger is part of hatred; it is never part of love. That’s where Bertolt Brecht has missed the point. If you are against religiousness then you will be creative, but your creativity will be pathological. It will be ill at ease, it will not be beautiful.
And you can see it. The whole of modern art is ugly for the simple reason that it has no spiritual origins, it has no meditative quality in it. You can look at Picasso’s paintings: they show something insane in the man. Picasso is a genius – with just a little spirituality he would have surpassed Michelangelo. He has the capacity, he has the talents, he has the intelligence, but something is missing. He is in a chaos he has no inner discipline.
That’s why while Michelangelo creates beautiful art Picasso creates ugly art. Looking at Picasso’s paintings one is bound to be struck by the fact that there is some insane note in it.
There are so many stories about Picasso…
An American millionaire came to Picasso. He wanted two paintings and he wanted them immediately. And he was ready to pay any price – money was not the question. Picasso was a little puzzled because he had only one painting left. He asked such a price that he thought the millionaire would say, “I will purchase only one.”
But he said, “Okay, I will pay the price. Where are the paintings? Bring the paintings, and here is the check!”
He went in, cut his painting in two and he gave the millionaire two paintings.
In fact, you can even cut his paintings in four; it will not make much difference.
I have heard another story:
One rich woman wanted him to paint her portrait; he did it. When she came, she looked at it and she said, “Everything is okay, only I don’t like the nose. You will have to repaint the nose.”
Picasso said, “That is impossible.”
She said, “Why is it impossible? I am ready to pay for it. If you need more money for it I am ready to pay for it.”
He said, “Money is not the question. I don’t know where the nose is!”