A bullfight 1934

Picasso made this painting of a bullfight with oil on canvas, and what strikes me is how he's not trying to copy what he sees but to find a new language. The brushstrokes are big and free, like he's wrestling with the paint. He uses colors that pop and clash, like the blue horse against the yellow ground. It’s raw, like a sketch, but so alive, and the texture! Thick dollops of paint everywhere. Look at how he's built up layers, especially around the horse’s head on the right. You can almost feel the energy of the bullfight, the chaos and intensity of the moment. This painting reminds me of some of Goya’s more expressionistic works. Both artists capture something elemental about human nature and our relationship to violence and spectacle. This is not just a painting of a bullfight; it's a painting about painting, about seeing, and about feeling.