Faith & Spirit Quote by Pablo Picasso

Picasso treats “finishing” like an execution, and the drama is deliberate. The line rejects the polite, museum-ready idea that art should arrive at a final, sealed state. For him, completion isn’t a triumph of craft; it’s a shutdown of possibility. “To be through with it” isn’t relief, it’s betrayal: the moment you declare a painting done, you stop listening to what it could still become.

The subtext is a defense of process as the real artwork. Picasso came of age as modernism was breaking the academic contract that prized polish, illusion, and resolved narratives. Cubism, collage, and his constant style-switching weren’t just formal experiments; they were refusals of closure. A finished picture risks turning into a product - stable, collectible, legible. An unfinished one stays alive, unsettled, and therefore dangerous. That’s why he frames completion as “the coup de grace” not only for the canvas but for the painter: to finish is to accept your own limits, to admit you’ve run out of questions.

There’s also a sly bit of self-mythmaking. Picasso, famously prolific, recasts endless revision not as indecision but as vitality. The quote flatters the artist who never stops, who keeps the work “souled” by keeping it open. In a culture that loves the neat arc - draft, refine, finalize - Picasso insists the real modern gesture is to leave the door ajar, even if it makes everyone nervous.