Auctions Are Bizarre Combinations Of Slave Market,

Turns Out Picasso's Passion For Uncertainty, Mystery, And The Thrill Of Life Never Ended.

It Took The Metropolitan Museum Of Art Nearly 50 Years To Wake Up To Pablo Picasso. It Didn't Own One Of His Paintings Until 1946, When Gertrude Stein Bequeathed That Indomitable Quasi-cubistic Picture Of Herself - A Portrait Of The Writer As A Sumo Buddha - To The Met, Principally Because She Disliked The Museum Of Modern Art.

Art Is A Self-replicating Force.

I Wish I Could Write About Shows Outside New York. I Often Feel Like The Last Person To Know Anything, Because I Almost Never Get To Leave Town, And When I Do, I Tend To Go For Three Days Max. Seeing Between 30 And 40 Shows A Week In 100 Or So Galleries And Museums Takes Up Nearly All My Time.

Although I Adore The Italian High Renaissance, I'd Rather Look At Mannerism. The Former Is Ordered, Integrated, Otherworldly, And Grandiose; It Leaves You Feeling Hungry For Something Flawed And Of-the-flesh.