Picasso vs Poems

The Picasso exhibit was a fascinating look into the mind of one of the most famous artists in modern history. While his work is not the style that I prefer, it does provoke thought. Specifically the work we were asked to look at where the artist combined with French poet Pierre Reverdy to create an illustrated book of poems. This work does not appear to explore the depth of Picasso’s talent but it does examine the concept of art as words. The broad strokes of paint seem to represent the emotions that the poems evoke for Picasso. While they are likely thematic with respect to the words on the page, they do not supersede them. The paint does not take the place of the words, and I would argue that images can never take the place of words. There is indeed value to the use of images in expression, but there are limits on pictures that are not present in words. In images, meaning is never clear. That is not to say that it is always clear in words, but there is a level of clarity that can never be entrusted to images. There is a reason that authors write books and artists draw pictures. Certainly there is a place for the ambiguity present in images, but that place is generally not in fields based in knowledge.