"At the age of ninety, Pablo Picasso is undoubtedly the greatest living artist of the twentieth century. Although he has had tremendous influence as a painter and sculpture, he has rarely committed himself in writing on the subject of art, and in fact the vast Picasso literature contains only three documents that he has verified himself. Moreover, among his closest associates there appears to have been an unwritten rule never to quote him directly, many of them insisting it is impossible to do so. Jean Leymarie, director of the Paris Musée National d'Art Moderne and a close friend of Picasso's since 1944, has reported, 'Once he spoke or five hours about odors - of women he had known, of houses, towns, studios, etc. How is it possible to record all that?' The task is, at best, a formidable one. But in spite of the artist's elliptical conversational style, Dore Ashton - one of America's foremost art critics and the author of many books and articles on modern art - has captured Picasso extempore. With this skillfully edited anthology of his statements culled from articles, books, and interviews by the friends and associates to whom Picasso has revealed his ideas and thoughts about art and artists, she conveys an unusually intimate sense of being in Picasso's presence, of experiencing his quick flashes of insight and wit. Illustrated with examples of Picasso's own book designs, this selection afford us a unique and important view of the artist through all his 'states of fullness and emptiness' - which, he has said, 'is all there is to the mystery of art.'" -- from interior flap. Edited by Robert Motherwell and Arthur A. Cohen. Bibliography compiled by Bernard Karpel. Includes a list of illustrations. SBN 670019437