Woman with bird 1970

This is Picasso’s "Woman with Bird," a roughly 100 x 81 cm oil on canvas where the paint is applied with a real sense of freedom. Look at the way the grays and blacks are laid down; it's like he's building the form right in front of us. You can feel the process. There's something about the texture here; it's not trying to hide the hand of the artist. The paint is neither overly thick nor overly thin, but just right. The colors are muted, yet there’s something vibrant about the composition. Take a look at the bird sitting on her shoulder, how it seems to hover between realistic and abstracted, how the grey paint almost disappears into the background. Picasso's work always feels like a conversation. Like he's talking to the past and challenging the future all at once. It’s this ambiguity, this refusal to settle on one fixed meaning, that makes his art so compelling, even now.