A red skirt 1901

Here we have Picasso’s “A Red Skirt,” made with crayon, and you can really see the quick, gestural marks piling up on the page. The whole thing feels urgent, like Picasso was trying to capture a fleeting thought. Looking closely, the texture of the crayon gives the surface a kind of gritty quality, especially in that vibrant red skirt. It’s not just red, though, is it? There are streaks of darker shades that give the skirt volume, and the shadow that falls right down the middle gives the sitter a really pensive, almost mournful, presence. The figure has these strange yellow highlights, making her seem almost otherworldly. It reminds me a bit of Edvard Munch, actually, in the way that the emotional intensity is cranked up through color and distorted form. It's not a perfect likeness but captures a feeling, that art can be less about representation and more about expression.