Two naked figures 1909

With drypoint, Picasso scratched these two figures into a copper plate. You can imagine him pressing down, digging into the metal, the burr snagging as he pulls, leaving these velvety, dark lines. I think Picasso is always trying to create a world, a world in which we can understand how to experience the world. You know? It's almost like he's trying to teach you how to see. And he's using these naked figures as a way to do that. Look how the hatching both defines and dissolves the forms, how it makes you work to see it, almost forcing you to feel it with your eyes. You can see Picasso in conversation with Matisse, with Cézanne, with all the artists who came before him. It’s like a party line where everyone is chatting at once. And that’s what art is, a messy, beautiful, endless conversation.