The Surprised Bathers (Les baigneuses surprises) 1933

Picasso made this etching showing two nude bathers, and maybe we are the ones doing the surprising. I love how spare yet full of information this is – Picasso's line travels so economically. The women’s bodies are described with these frantic, scribbly marks. You can feel the speed and energy of his hand, and his effort to find the form, the shape, through a mass of lines. I imagine him working quickly, trying to capture some fleeting thought. It makes me wonder what it was like for Picasso to create the work, balancing intention and accident. It is like he's teaching himself how to see, through drawing. I am reminded of Matisse, but Picasso is rougher, less smooth. Picasso, Matisse, me – we are all just trying to work it out together, in our own ways, in our own time.