Early in his article--which he has called Escaping  The Great Master That Never Was--the author reminds us that there was a time when he devoted himself to Picasso studies, how the most trivial academic revelation once caused him to run off to a nearby bar to drink my very first vodka on the rocks.
The author tells us that his devotion to the study of Picasso led him to drink.
The author has always been a critic of Picasso.