Brotherhood of the bewildered

October 25, 1881 -- Pablo Picasso born.

"Abstract art: A product of the untalented, sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered." -- Al Capp.

October 24 -- U. N. Day.

"Civilized man is born, lives and dies in slavery; at his birth he is confined in swaddling clothes; at death he is nailed in a coffin. So long as he retains the human form he is fettered by our institutions." -- Jean-Jacques Rouusseau.

Tense: past absurd

Sir Max Beerbohm, English author and caricaturist, was born on this day in 1872. A pair of his caricatures is shown here. The self-portraits "The Theft" depicts him stealing a book from the library in 1894; "The Restitution" shows him returning that book in 1920.

Beerbohm wrote:

"There is always something rather absurd about the past."

More birthdays missed

Rough week -- hospital stay, family travails. To catch up:

July 11: American humorist/essayist E. B. White was born July 11, 1899. He wrote:

"Our idea of a cultured person is a person who doesn't want to live in a community of cultured persons."



July 12: Henry David Thoreau was born on July 12, 1817. He wrote in Walden:

"I have lived some thirty years on this planet, and I have yet to hear the first syllable of valuable or even earnest advice from my seniors."



July 13: Julius Caesar born in 100 BC.

"So long as men worship the Caesars and Napoleons, Caesars and Napoleons will duly rise and make them miserable." -- Aldous Huxley.

July 14: Gerald Ford was born July 14, 1913.

"Gerry Ford was a nice guy, but he played too much football with his helmet off." -- Lyndon B. Johnson.

July 15: Rembrandt was born on this day in 1606.

"That which probably hears more stupidities than anything else in the world is a painting in a museum." -- Jules de Goncourt.

He withdrew, to save his soul -- and his neck

Artist Paul Gauguin was born on this day in 1848.

"Fame! What a vain word, and what a vain recompense!" he wrote. "I think only of withdrawing myself far from men, and in consequence far from fame."

"Don't talk to me of Gauguin. I'd like to wring the fellow's neck!" -- Paul Cezanne.

Give an ear to this

Vincent Van Gogh was born on this day in 1853.

"I believe more and more," Van Gogh said, "that God must not be judged on this earth. It is one of his sketches that has turned out badly."