PICASSO'S PIGEONS

CONFIDENCE

Shortly before completing a study of some delightful pigeons that had come to keep him company on the balcony of his villa in Vallauris in the South of France, Picasso observed a group of young children in a classroom painting with particular exuberance and vitality. ‘At their age,’ he rued, ‘I knew how to paint like Titian. It’s taken me a lifetime to relearn to paint like them.’ That Picasso, one of the most courageous of all artistic figures, should have confessed to an occasional struggle to create with simplicity and emotional candour tells us a lot about how in thrall we can all be to unnecessary ideas of respectability and elaboration – across every area of our lives. We tend to overcomplicate matters out of a timid fear that our true feelings, gestures and thoughts might not be enough on their own. In art, we lean on academic ideas of propriety; in literature, we use dense, obfuscatory language; in cookery, we prepare heavy convoluted meals; in conversation, we talk in abstract terms that cover up the intensity and vulnerability of our actual feelings. It takes a great deal of confidence to strip out what is superfluous, showy and emotionally-cloaked. We find it hard to imagine that who we are could really be enough. We’re scared about plainly revealing just what we find beautiful or sweet. We can’t imagine that the simple meals of bread, olives and cheese that we love might also appeal to others. We hesitate for an age to tell those we care about what they truly mean to us. We tend to get a little better at directness as we grow older; it’s no surprise that a great many artists have become more ‘primitive’ (and in the process a good deal more engaging) with time; as death comes closer, they have found the strength and seriousness to leave ‘good’ manners behind. We should aim for a comparable evolution, learning to live guilelessly and directly, saying more of what we feel, crying where we should, and expressing ourselves with the profundity and jubilance of the small children we once were.

This Article Is From The School Of Life

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