Homme assis et centaure 1972

Pablo Picasso made "Homme assis et centaure" with oil on canvas, but when is anyone's guess! The way Picasso lays down the paint, it’s all about the process. It's like he's thinking out loud, right there on the canvas. You can see the marks, the strokes, the decisions. He’s not trying to hide anything. The paint is pretty thin, and you can see how he’s layered it, building up the image bit by bit. Look at how the grey-brown strokes of the Centaur's body are laid so freely over the green background. It's like he's not sure what he's doing, but he's going to figure it out as he goes along. It reminds me of some of Philip Guston’s later stuff, where he's just letting it all hang out, embracing the mess and the uncertainty. It's a reminder that art is a conversation, a back-and-forth between the artist and the canvas, and that it's okay to not have all the answers.