Bull (plate III) 1945

This is ‘Bull (plate III)’ by Pablo Picasso, it's a lithograph, so drawn with a greasy crayon onto a stone, and then printed. You can see the artist is working subtractively, building up tone to describe the bull’s heavy mass. I love the way Picasso draws, there's this sense that he understands how things are put together, as an artist, he’s so confident in his ability to deconstruct forms. Look at the texture, the way that he uses a very limited tonal range to describe something powerful and solid. The line quality here has an immediacy that is so engaging, you feel like you are watching him draw in real-time. See how the marks build up to the bull’s head, really exploring the animal's features and bulk. I'm reminded of Franz Kline, who also worked in monochrome, capturing the essence of an image. These guys show how process and mark-making can be so expressive, even with a minimal palette.