Man with lamb, man eating watermelon and flutist 1967

Pablo Picasso drew Man with Lamb, Man Eating Watermelon and Flutist in 1967 using brown ink on paper, a kind of rehearsal of pastoral themes. Imagine him there, rapidly coaxing his pen across the paper, summoning these figures, one after the other, out of thin air. I see a flutist, a man with a lamb, and another eating watermelon. These figures share the same space, but it's not clear that they occupy the same world! The lines are so simple but carry so much energy. I’m struck by the contrast between the delicacy of the strokes and the rawness of the composition. I mean, the image is barely there, but somehow it feels complete. Picasso was always looking back to previous artists while pushing forward into the future. Artists build on each other, responding and reacting across time. It reminds us that painting is a conversation, an ongoing dialogue where nothing is ever truly finished, but constantly evolving.