Nudes and bust 1933

Picasso made this painting of nudes and a bust with oil on canvas, but when, we don’t know. I can imagine the process of making this painting - he’s working and reworking the figures, with a push-pull of blues and greys, searching for the right forms and angles. The paint looks quite thin in places, almost like a wash, and then built up in others to give texture to the bust and the figures’ faces. Look at the way he has painted the eyes, and how they are both looking out at us as the viewer. I wonder what he was thinking as he was making this. Was he thinking of Matisse? Of Ingres? These nudes are kind of like the distorted cousins of academic painting. And the bust—is it another woman? An imagined version of these women? A nod to sculpture as another mode of artmaking? Picasso is in conversation with all these forms, pushing the boundaries of what painting can be, and how we see the world. It’s like he’s saying, "I'm here, I'm wrestling with art history, watch me!"