Study to "Girls from Avignon" 1906

This study for "Girls from Avignon" was made by Pablo Picasso using pencil on paper. Right away I'm struck by the speed of the lines, how the marks capture the energy of the moment. It's a bit like a dance, isn't it, the way the pencil moves across the page? You can almost feel Picasso's hand at work, grappling with form and space. It's all there in the texture of the lines, some dark and emphatic, others light and tentative. Look at the figure on the left, the way her body is defined by these quick, almost scribbled marks. It's not about perfection, it's about process. I'm reminded of Matisse and his line drawings. There is a kind of conversation happening across time, artists responding to and building upon one another's ideas, always questioning, always pushing the boundaries of what art can be. And that's what makes it so exciting, isn't it? The endless possibilities, the constant evolution.