[ross hamilton hill]

Rick
Picasso almost single handedly began the transformation of art from representation to abstaction, he took Cezanne's intuition that form was as much a product of the eye as the the thing and created with Braque, cubism. That lead to Kandinsky, Miro etc in Europe and then the Abstract Expressionists of the New York school.
I didn't like Picasso either till I saw an exhibition of his drawings, his mastery of imaginitive design, and then my brother who is an art book collector got several massive books of his work, he did 1000's of painting and drawings, he was literally drawing in bed when he died at 90 something, when I looked through my brother's books I saw some amost abstract landscapes of villagers that were wonderful, I don't like a lot of his work, especially his middle and old age stuff where the colours are horrible and the technique becomes repetitive, but he is a giant of modern art, his graphic style influenced western illustrative art all over the place, book covers, advertising, fashion art.
People think of Picasso as a Spanish bull with all his young wives, but his closest friends were poets, and for a year he stopped painting entirely and wrote only poetry. If you read about his life you realise that although he was tough he was also extremely sensitive, I think you can see in film of him his nobility and the deep cultural wellsprings of Spain.
As for Sargeant, wonderful work, very traditional really, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, come to mind, some are very formal, I like the flamenco dancer, his most succeesful painting for me.
Well I hope this stimulates interest, but critiquing paintings, whew, that's hard work, maybe asking too much of poets although Budelaire was a perceptive critic of painting, he also drew a little and had marvellous handwriting. Don't know of many poets who also painted, although strangely Frank Sinatra did reasonable abstract paintings in his old age.
I used to paint but gradually stopped to specialize in writing as I realized you can 'spread yourself too thin' I also tried everything, dancing, acting, guitar playing, singing. Was OK at all of them but it was always dabbling, gave me something to write about and helped me be a good teacher but now I am too old to do anything but write.
cheers
Ross