goddesses and doormats

[ana_pirogova]

Women were extraordinarily important for Picasso, who was by turns kind and cruel to all his wives, muses and mistresses. According to the French painter Françoise Gilot, who was his mistress for a decade after they met in 1943, Picasso was fond of saying, 'For me, there are only two kinds of women: goddesses and doormats.’

Yet even the 'doormats’ (and there are many instances of the artist psychologically trampling over his nearest and dearest) played an important role in the evolution of his art: after all, one of the cardinal myths about Picasso is that his work changed direction whenever a new woman became the principal lover in his life. As he once said: 'When I love a woman, that tears everything apart – especially my painting.’

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-features/7611524/Pablo-Picasso-close-to-the-sun.html