“When I am alone with myself, I have not the courage to think of myself as an artist in the great and ancient sense of the term. Giotto, Titan, Rembrandt and Goya were great painters.
I am only a PUBLIC ENTERTAINER who has understood his times and has exhausted, as best he could, the imbecility, the vanity, the cupidity of his contemporaries. Mine is a bitter confession, and more painful than it may appear, but it has the merit of being sincere.”-Pablo Picasso
“And Der Fuehrer, What an painter! He could do a whole apartment in one afternoon! TWO COATS!”-From THE PRODUCERS
The collectors, the art dealers and the egg-head liberal art schools/departments are ones proclaiming that Picasso's later modern works have artistic merit. They are trying to uphold the value of their collections, livelihoods and reputations as art "experts" in order to keep the gravy train alive. After all, there is still a lot more Picasso modern art junk pieces to sell.