Les femmes d’Alger 1955

Picasso made this painting, Les femmes d’Alger, with oil on canvas, and right away you're plunged into a stew of bodies and color. It’s a complex puzzle of flattened space and fractured form. The women lounge amidst bold, angular shapes, painted with bright colors like reds, blues and yellows. Looking at those sharp lines, I can almost feel Picasso's brush darting across the canvas, trying to pin down every angle of these women and this interior. There's something restless about it, like he’s not content with just one way of seeing. I can imagine him pacing around the canvas, head full of ideas, layering shapes and colors until they start to take on a life of their own. It reminds me a bit of Matisse, especially with the decorative patterns and the way he flattens everything out. You know, painting is like a conversation across time, and each artist puts their own spin on it. Picasso is always riffing on the past, pushing it forward.