Why is Picasso so important?

Generally, the more that is written about an artist in scholarly books, the more "important" they will be considered. In art dictionaries and general art history books you will find that most often Picasso will have the longest listing of any artist, probably because he was involved in starting several of the most prominent art movements in the twentieth century, and those particular art movements required a lot of analyzing (writing) to understand (I still don't get some of them). Having work published in a book can be a big boost to any artist's career. Publishing is a publicity machine for artists. Personally, I judge paintings on their individual artistic merits, and only secondarily consider where they fall in the artist's oeuvre.  more