Picasso s Cowardice Under the heading Political Views it is stated that Picasso s contemporaries thought his pacifism was merely a function of his cowardice This claim is backed up by quoting Adam Gopnik writing in 1997 in the New Yorker Gopnik was not Picasso s contemporary Moreover Gopnik s claim is entirely ahistorical Weirdly this New Yorker quote is sourced to James Fenton s book Leonardo s Nephew in an article in the book originally published in the New York Review of Books Gopnik s article is exposed as obnoxiously wrong headed Picasso was a Spaniard and had no reason to fight in World War I He was 58 years old when WWII started Picasso was in fact brave to stay in Paris throughout the Nazi occupation since he was the leading degenerate artist and had painted the famously powerfully anti fascist Guernica He was recognized as a moral example throughout the war and came out of it with tremendous prestige politically The notion that Picasso was a coward is baseless and should not be published here