Seated Woman with Red Hat 1956

Pablo Picasso made this “Seated Woman with Red Hat” with paint, whenever it was that he made it – time is slippery like that. The colours are muted, like a faded memory, except for the red hat, which POPS. The paint is laid on thick, you can almost feel the texture. It's not about hiding the process, but about showing it, celebrating it, like a dance between the artist and the canvas. Look at the lines around the woman's face, they're rough and uneven, but somehow they capture the essence of a person. That slash of red on her cheek – is it a tear? A blush? Both? Picasso’s like a jazz musician, riffing on the themes of the past, but always pushing forward, always trying something new. You can see shades of Matisse here, but Picasso takes it somewhere else, somewhere stranger, more personal, and infinitely more interesting.