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Picasso, the African Mask, and Les Demoiselles. AI generated     Introduction: The New Anxiety of Art The recent proliferation of images generated by artificial intelligence has sparked both fascination and disquiet. For some, these images represent dazzling new frontiers of creative expression; for others, they signal a loss—the end of something human, authentic, or irreducibly imaginative. This tension is hardly unprecedented. In the 19th century, the invention of photography sparked similar unease. Portrait painters feared obsolescence. Ironically, some of those who initially resisted technological mediation later became its pioneers. A few daring artists, such as Edgar Degas and Édouard Baldus, eventually incorporated the camera into their practice. What these historical echoes suggest is that the core debate may not lie in the tools themselves but in how we define authorship, invention, and artistic legitimacy. Are machines capable of creative agency? Is art still art...