Flautist and Three Nudes (Flûtiste et trois femmes nues) 1932

Pablo Picasso pulled this etching, Flautist and Three Nudes, to life with line, probably in one sitting – you know how he could be! I imagine him hunched over the plate, the air thick with the smell of acid. I like to imagine the process of making art like this. What was he thinking? Perhaps about Matisse? All those reclining nudes, but here, they’re like a field of bodies, a landscape of desire. He was probably thinking about music too. The etching line itself is like a musical note – now thick, now thin, now sustained, now broken. See how the bodies seem to melt into one another? How the composition is unresolved? Picasso's line is so alive and direct; he invites us into his world. Painters, we’re all magpies, stealing and borrowing from each other, across time and space. Painting is all about feeling and intuition and the way artists like Picasso embraced ambiguity and uncertainty, allowing for multiple interpretations, is something I find truly beautiful and inspirational.