The sailor 1938

Here we have ‘The Sailor’ by Pablo Picasso, made at an unknown date and using oil paint. The painting is really all about these flat planes of color blocked together, creating this fragmented but still very legible face. I like the olive green lips, they give the figure a slightly grotesque edge, and that eye on the left, floating in a sea of grey, is pretty freaky too. It's funny how Picasso takes something as familiar as a portrait and scrambles it, turning the face into a puzzle. Up close, you can see how the paint is applied in simple, bold strokes. Look at the hat, for example, and the way the stripes are rendered with such casual confidence, or the way the planes of color don’t quite meet. These aren't blended perfectly, but that's the point. This guy was so influential to painters like Philip Guston, who also went on to mix figuration with abstraction. It makes you think about how artists build on each other's ideas, creating this amazing conversation across time.