A blue house 1902

Picasso made this painting of a house with oils in the first decade of the 20th century. It’s like he’s feeling his way through the depiction, searching for the architecture of feeling rather than the architecture of a building. I can imagine him squinting at the light, how it hits the side of the building, seeing not just yellow, but the grey and the blue that make up the yellow. The brushstrokes are applied in blocks, one next to the other, building the form like tiles in a mosaic. He paints the shadows with a juicy dark brown, like he’s smearing it into the surface. This gives the painting a tactile quality, as if you could reach out and touch the rough surface of the building. It reminds me of Cezanne in its search for form and structure, but Picasso’s painting has a rawer edge, less polished, more urgent. Painting is this ongoing conversation, and we’re all just eavesdropping, adding our own voices to the mix. Each brushstroke is a mark of conversation.