Standing woman 1946

This is Pablo Picasso's 'Standing Woman', painted with oils, and measuring 146 by 89 centimeters. Picasso's marks here are so straightforward, so un-fussy. You can almost feel the brushstrokes, the drag of the pigment across the canvas. There's a real emphasis on process, like the painting is a record of its own making. Look at how he's built up the form with these geometric shapes. It’s so interesting the way he renders her breasts as perfect spheres, and her face as an oval! There’s something both solid and unstable about the figure. And notice that vertical stroke between the breasts. It’s just a simple line, but it holds the whole composition together. It’s like a spine, or a dividing line, or a question mark. It reminds me of Léger, but looser, more intuitive. It’s like Picasso’s thinking on the canvas, and the result is a painting that’s full of life and energy.