The Abduction of Sabines 1962

Picasso made 'The Abduction of the Sabines' in 1962, and it's all about process. You see the furious energy, the way he's wrestling with the paint. He’s putting it down and moving it around, letting the marks build up, like a conversation he’s having right there on the canvas. The paint is thick, almost sculptural in places. It feels like he's building the figures and the chaos of the scene right out of the stuff itself. Look at the way he's smeared and blended the colors, especially around the figures, where it’s hard to tell where one body begins and another ends, a swirl of limbs and torsos, like a big pile-up. It reminds me a little of Delacroix, that same sense of drama and movement, but Picasso’s really pushes it into something totally new and raw. It’s like he’s saying, "Yeah, history, but also, like, right now." It's a painting that's never really finished, always open to interpretation.