Picasso was not untalented... Hm. I've actually heard that Picasso was extremely mediocre before he perfected his scam. But I've never seen anything where it was obvious to me that he was "trying."
Mine is obviously a minority opinion, but every time I see a picture OF (not BY) Picasso, I get the feeling that he's thinking "These idiots actually think I'm a genius." Picasso was definitely a master of the con job.
I took my daughter to the Seattle Art Museum (or something with a name like that) three years ago. On an upper floor was a room filled with beds, stacks of mattresses, and toilets. It was not a storage room, but "art". Yeah. Furniture Barn or a masterpiece for the Art Establishment? I'm glad other people see through this trash. I thought I was alone.
Here is Houston is a great free art museum,
the Menil Collection. It houses possibly the largest private collections of Rene Magritte and Max Ernst (they bought directly from the artists, more suprising because initially they did not even like Ernst's work). Their collection is so extensive that it is never completely on display and a number of the works are loaned for touring shows.
Rene Magritte
Their collection extends into some areas though that just don't impress me. At the lowest ebb is the entire building dedicated to the work of Cy Twombly. It's a nice building but all it houses are chalk boards full of chalk scribbles!
Cy Twombly
They also have 2 churches established on their grounds. One houses a ceiling that was restored from a Byzentine church I believe, the other houses a series of black canvases painted by Mark Rothko. Some people swear that there are images in the underpaint of the Rothko paintings but maybe it's like those 3-D posters where you have to look at it just right.