Painter and his model 1963

Editor: So, here we have Picasso's "Painter and his Model" from 1963, done in oil on canvas. It’s a vibrant jumble of shapes, yet something about the blue figure of the artist strikes me as incredibly melancholic. What’s your take on this work? Curator: Melancholy is an interesting read! I often think about Picasso’s late works, like this one, as almost fever dreams, these urgent outpourings of raw emotion. He’s stripping away conventions, right? I mean, look at how he's fracturing space, pushing and pulling perspective. He’s less concerned with capturing a likeness and more invested in externalizing this...psychic landscape. Almost a meditation on creation itself, don’t you think? He, the artist, stares back at us. Do you see his one large, searching eye? Editor: Absolutely! And it's such a striking colour...the bright green of the model’s skin is rather disconcerting next to it. Curator: Yes! It's electric! He uses that heightened palette to amplify this almost unbearable tension between the creator and his creation. It’s as if he's saying, "This is my world, I’ll paint it as I *feel* it, not as it necessarily appears." Plus, green – the colour of life, renewal...but also of envy, illness. Editor: That contrast hadn't occurred to me before! There's so much packed into it. Curator: Exactly. A lifelong investigation into how the world works. Editor: Thanks; it makes it feel incredibly current, as though he only put it on canvas yesterday. Curator: Well, art like this makes time a playground, and, with some luck, sets our souls alight.