NOTES on the series. This series like all the series I work on is evolving as I work on it. Also none of the series in this website are ment to be a strict illustrated record of events. They are related to but seperate from those events and subjects. - Artist and The Human Condition (Dinner with Picasso). In the early 1940's Picasso became friends with the chief of police of Paris. He would invite chief of police to dinner and listen with great interest to first hand tales of the cruelty, violence, and stupidity that the human animal can be,... and is capable of. Picasso's view was that Man is by nature cruel and destructive. Only by an effort can man overcome that primitive destructive side and reach the higher aspects of he is capable of. . “A man cannot understand the art he is studying if he only looks for the end result without taking the time to delve deeply into the reasoning of the study.” Miyamoto Mushash ( 1584 – June 13, 1645 )

Two major artists visited the Nazi concentration camps after WW2. One was Picasso and the other is Anselm Kiefer

When conceived in 1880 The Thinker was entitled The Poet. He represented Dante, author of the Divine Comedy which had inspired The Gates, leaning forward to observe the circles of Hell, while meditating on his work.