The kitchen 1948

Picasso made this painting, The Kitchen, using oil on canvas with a very limited palette of greys and blues. It's like he’s creating a puzzle, where the shapes and lines intersect, building up to the suggestion of objects in a room. The surface is really interesting – Picasso hasn’t tried to hide his process here. You can see the brushstrokes, sometimes thin washes and other times more opaque blocks of color. Look at that section in the lower center, the white shapes with the bold black outlines, like objects stacked on top of each other. The line moves fluidly, connecting to other abstract shapes within the composition. These create a sense of depth, drawing you into the pictorial space. This reminds me of some of Braque's paintings from the same time period, both artists were so influential in how they depicted familiar images and objects. It’s as if painting is a conversation, always referencing and reimagining. Isn’t it fascinating how Picasso invites us to piece together our own version of reality?