Picasso to his son-"I wish you were dead."

Paul Johnson on Picasso from his interesting book Creators-

The all-powerful machinery of the Picasso industry—his regiments of women, his chateaux, his gold ingots, his unlimited fame, his vast wealth, the sycophancy that surrounded him—none of these brought him serenity as he aged. It seems to me that his personal cruelty and the evident savagery of much of his work (so different from the indignant savagery of Goya) sprang from a deep unease of spirit, which grew steadily worse and terminated in despair. When he realized that his sexual potency had gone, he said bitterly to his son Claude: "I am old and you are young. I wish you were dead."

Irony is thick here- with all "his regiments of women, his chateaux, his gold ingots, his unlimited fame, his vast wealth, the sycophancy that surrounded him", one might overlook the fact that he was a communist.

Don't these celebrity leftists-then and now- lead a highly charming and decadent capitalistic life?

(emphasis mine)