Untitled 1936

This Picasso painting, made with oil on canvas, is a trip. There’s a looseness to the brushwork, like he’s not trying to nail down reality, but instead, catch a feeling. Look at the colour palette: muted greens and blues fight for space with fleshy pinks, that feels very human. The texture is smooth, but the paint application is raw. In the face there’s something about the way the features are rendered that seems unfinished, like he’s showing us the bones of the idea. That watch on her wrist is a funny detail isn't it? It’s like he's winking at us, reminding us that painting is just an illusion, a trick of the eye, and the passage of time, maybe this is a moment in the studio. I'm reminded of the work of Francis Picabia. Both artists play with form and representation, never quite settling on one way of seeing. It’s all about the back-and-forth, the conversation between what’s there and what isn’t.