Untitled 1939

This oil painting by Picasso was made on the 23rd of June, 1939. I wonder what Picasso was thinking when he painted this mysterious figure. What I see is an artist wrestling with representation. We have this figure with a kind of metallic mask in blues and greys, sitting against a backdrop of gold stars on mustard and khaki green. Picasso has rendered a head with great attention, only to then disrupt the composition with that orange, almost cartoonish body. The juxtaposition of styles is really curious. Picasso flattens forms but he also creates a real sense of texture with the paint. See how those gestural strokes of black paint bring definition and volume to the figure? It reminds me of how much painting is a kind of puzzle. You put different shapes and colours together and hope that something emerges which resembles something. I am reminded of how every artist borrows from another, and that the history of painting is simply a long conversation.