Certain art does not die away over time, it only becomes more alive. It is possible to stand in front of a Picasso or a Basquiat today and get the same shock of energy that people must have gotten decades ago. It is not colour or technique, it is connection. Good art transcends time, space, culture, generations, etc.; and it somehow always finds you, wherever you are.

Why then, are there differences between the legends and those whom we forget? It is not merely pure talent (although that is a factor). It is more, something that cannot be described in words.

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by Picasso did not only turn heads the first time it appeared, it frayed the entire concept of art in two. The jagged lines, the broken forms, the crude, un-glamorized, emotionality – it was no more about making something beautiful. It was time to face something actual, something ugly and mortal. Such audacity is precisely what makes the work of Picasso so alive even to date.

And then there’s Basquiat. His art does not courteously seek your attention, it imposes itself on you. While bursting out of New York in the 1980s, Basquiat took his New York and his world onto the canvas: race, identity, power, capitalism, all together in raving colour and hyperactivity. His paintings are wild and desperate, as though they are still breathing to this day, decades after he painted them.

The thing that unites Picasso and Basquiat is not only their ability they possess, but their total aversion to conventional rules. They did not attempt to conform to the notion of what anyone considered great art; they produced what they had to produce: crude, passionate, and wild. It is the courage to speak honestly without fear, which is why their work does not just survive- it remains alive.

And this is the point: there is nothing iconic that cannot be in the present. They keep evolving. In them, something different can be found in each new generation. It is not that Picasso cubist exercises no longer appear weird, however they seem to serve as a reminder that the world can be looked at through several different lenses. The desperate scribbles and the crown patterns of Basquiat seem even more pressing today in the world that still struggles to resolve the matters depicted in his paintings.

Naturally, it is also the mythology of these artists that makes us addicted. Picasso – the unwearying chief who never conceded a change to his style, but was ever tempted to find something out. Basquiat – the downtown boy who shattered the doors of the art world, got to be a superstar within a month or so and left behind an even bigger legacy than he had ever lived. Their anecdotes make their work even more life, more purpose.

Another key aspect? They never remained comfortable. Picasso has left the melancholy blues of his early years to the radicalism of form that characterized Cubism. Basquiat continued to add new thoughts to his paintings, drawing on music, history and pop culture – always mixing it up, always pushing onwards. They remind us that great art does not involve doing it once and then riding on its wave, it is about not giving up, being constantly interested and having the guts to continue growing. They don’t live just because they are famous, they live because they have a sense. They take us on a trip down the memory lane and remind us what being human is all about, being sloppy and complex, fumbling in the darkness seeking to know what makes sense.

Eternal art does not necessarily age with grace, often it struggles just to live. It is still asking questions, still inciting emotions, still luring you into another view. Picasso and Basquiat made works of art that are not just viewed as one of its time, but have etched their impact forevermore.