(8 of 8)
Yet Picasso at his best is still the most vital painter living, with energy unsurpassed, and directness backed by a steely control of whatever medium he chooses to employ. Today his paintings of 50 years ago are generally admired, and chances are that the public taste will eventually catch up with his present works as well. For though Picasso at 68 is a far more complex and subjective artist than he was at 18, he has the same astonishing mastery and zest for art and life.
"The whole world is open before us," Picasso once exclaimed, "everything waiting to be done, not just redone." That spirit has prompted all his voyages in art. It keeps him at the wheel.
Holding Picasso's portrait of Claude.