Naked woman in rocking chair 1956

This is Pablo Picasso's 'Naked woman in rocking chair', a painting realized through layering paint onto a flat surface. The materiality here is defined by the artist's hand, a record of his active, assertive gestures as he moves around the canvas. This emphasis on the body lingers in the final image, which is all about the haptic qualities of skin and body mass. Even the wicker rocking chair is imbued with a sense of human scale, as the artist renders it with bold strokes of paint, mirroring the sitter's contours. Picasso was working at a time when painting was rapidly being displaced as a means of image production. New technologies like photography and film made it seem obsolete. But the rugged materiality of this painting reasserts the value of craft, and the irreplaceable touch of the artist's hand. It is a reminder of how the making process, with all its labor and energy, can shape the very meaning of an artwork.