There is absolutely no doubt whatsoever about Van Gogh’s contribution. The intensity, emotionalism, passion and spirituality in his work and in his life are definitions of ‘the troubled artist’. There are several Van Goghs (5, I think) at the Detroit Institute of Arts and more in Chicago. I make a point to see them whenever I am there, which isn’t often enough.
Any argument about whose work is ‘better’ is ridiculous. Fun, but ridiculous. However, as an artist, Picasso was pretty much on the forefront of innovation in the art world for almost a century. He alone at his death owned over 50,000 pieces in multiple media. Today, his work is everywhere. Around 1947, as a friend of his writes, Picasso found a broken bicycle and without conscious thought, he made this, one of the most famous sculptures of ‘found objects’ that revolutionized the idea of making something from nothing, connecting ideas to things and connecting totally unrelated things to each other spontaneously in beautifully anti-intellectual ways.
https://cdn.thecollector.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/04/picasso-bull-sculpture.jpg?width=1200&quality=100&dpr=2