Thoughts & life experiences of a Chicago area graphic artist

30 September 2022

Picasso's Controversial Stalin Portrait & AI Conjecture

 Card-carrying Communist Party Member Pablo Picasso was asked by a French newsletter to make a portrait sketch of Josef Stalin upon the Soviet Dictator's death. Turn around time was ASAP! Look at the drawing he made of the infamous autocrat:


Features are generally in the right place. Nothing crazy considering Picasso's usual style at the time of abstract creativity. The newsletter used the art but got massive feedback of the worse kind. 

Read more about the case here.

What if Picasso had AI available to him in 1953? I prompted my WOMBO Dream app with the words "Stalin portrait by Picasso" and it created this very credible "painting" below:

I'm sure the Communist loyalists would probably not have liked that one either. 

Check out my blog post about the major Picasso Exhibit in Chicago's Art Institute

Photo © by O. Douglas Jennings. All rights reserved.


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