Corrida. Wounded Female Torero III (Corrida. Femme Torero blessée III) 1933

Here is your audio guide: This etching, Corrida. Wounded Female Torero III, is by Picasso, but its date is unknown. Look at how Picasso is feeling his way through the image, the accumulation of lines suggest a process of continual searching. The thin lines on this plate feel so tentative, as if he is mapping the image, working out where everything goes. The etching is like a ghostly trace, a series of marks, pulled from the plate and transferred to the paper. In the lower left of the image, look at the squiggles that make up the bull’s belly, how the line thickens and thins as it moves across the animal’s form. The whole image is full of life and movement. I think Picasso and Goya would have had a lot to talk about. Although their work looks quite different, they both seem to have shared an interest in depicting the drama and spectacle of the bullfight, and their etchings share a similar intensity. In the end, art is an ongoing conversation; it embraces ambiguity.