The painting pictured above, called “Nude, Green Leaves and Bust” by Pablo Picasso sold this week for 106.48 million dollars. It sold at Christies’s and set a record for the most a painting has sold at auction. The figure is of his mistress Marie-Teresa Walter and was painted in only one day. It’s bizarre to say the least and I’m surprised it took a whole day to do the painting. Picasso had several mistresses and wives, which doesn’t surprise me if they looked like the figure in this painting.

Picasso was born in Spain and is probably the best known figure in 20th Century art. He lived to be 91 years of age and turned out about 2,400 pieces of art. He died in 1973 and had a long career that spanned much of the 20th century. His style of art, called Cubism, had a great deal of influence on many painters and even writers like Ernest Hemingway.

I am pretty much of a realist when it comes to art and admire stuff like the western art of Remington. I do like other things like Andrew Wyeth and even the works of Diego Rivera and the surreal, wildman, Salvador Dali. It sounds like I have an eye for art like Helen Keller, but in a bizarre kind of way I like some Picasso. He reminds me in a way of Ernest Hemingway’s writing, which I love. I am oddly attracted to that entire weird group of people called “The Lost Generation” who lived in Paris after World War I. In many ways that generation is like mine, that is a full generation later, and also disillusioned with modern society. I guess the disillusionment will continue with the economic shocks of recent years, and this will continue to nurture unusual expressions of art and literature. It may even keep Picasso and Hemingway alive.

Hemingway was inspired by Picasso’s style of painting called Cubism. They both presented their creative visions about modern life in this graphic manner of art.

I guess, as I sit on the porch and conjure up visions of this modern world, in which we live, I might express it like Picasso if I could paint and like Hemingway if I could write.