Pablo Picasso and art critic John Berger felt his talents as an artist were "wasted" by the communists. According to Jean Cocteau's diaries, Picasso once said to him in reference to the communists: "I have joined a family, and like all families, it's full of shit". Picasso was exceptionally prolific throughout his long lifetime. The total number of artworks he produced has been estimated at 50,000, comprising 1,885 paintings; 1,228 sculptures; 2,880 ceramics, roughly 12,000 drawings, many thousands of prints, and numerous tapestries and rugs. The medium in which Picasso made his most important contribution was painting. In his paintings, Picasso used
Guernica (Picasso) allegedly asked him, upon seeing a photo of "Guernica" in his apartment, "Did you do that?" Picasso responded, "No, you did." The photographer Dora Maar—who had worked with Picasso since mid-1936, photographing his studio and teaching him the technique of cameraless photography— documented the stages "Guernica" went through on its way to completion. Apart from their documentary and publicity value, Maar's photographs "helped Picasso to eschew color and give the work the black-and-white immediacy of a photograph", according to John Richardson. The work was painted using a matte house paint specially formulated at Picasso's request to have the least possible