Untitled 1938

This portrait by Pablo Picasso, made with oil on canvas, really messes with how we see, doesn’t it? The colours are a muted, almost pastel palette, but then he hits you with these strong black lines that define the form. It's a back and forth between soft and hard that keeps your eye dancing. Look at the way he renders the face – the profile and the frontal view are kinda smashed together, like he's showing you all sides at once. The texture is smooth, but you can see the grain of the canvas coming through, reminding you that this is an object, not just an image. The hat has these gorgeous, subtle gradations of colour, like he's trying to give it weight and volume. And those eyes! They are like almonds or lozenges. They’re the kind of simplified form that you can see in the work of someone like Modigliani, but Picasso takes it somewhere totally new. Ultimately, this painting is less about capturing a likeness, and more about exploding the very idea of representation.