Sebastia Junyer-Vidal as rhapsode 1903

Picasso made this drawing of Sebastia Junyer-Vidal, his friend, with crayons - probably not the posh oil pastels we have today, but waxier, dryer, student-grade materials. And yet, look how much he gets out of them. I love that he doesn’t try to blend or smooth them, but allows the marks to remain visible. There's a freedom in the way Picasso allows these marks to stand alone as marks, a testament to his approach of artmaking as a process. Look at the scribbled hatching in the upper right, building the form of a tree; the yellow crayon radiating sunlight; the blue that creates the sky, water, and leafy canopy. This frenetic energy seems, to me, to vibrate through the whole image. This reminds me of Cy Twombly, who took simple materials like pencils and crayons, and created something monumental. Ultimately, art is an ongoing conversation, one that Picasso began.