Buste de matador 1970

Picasso made this matador bust using oil paint, with energetic marks and a lively blue, orange, and white color scheme. You can almost feel the painting coming into being, shifting, emerging through trial, error, and intuition. I sympathize with Picasso here. What was he thinking when he made it? Maybe it was just a playful mood. The paint looks really juicy, doesn't it? Thick and physical. Look at the way he made the nose and mouth. That one gesture communicates so much feeling, almost like a caricature. You can see how this piece relates to Picasso’s wider practice, his life-long project. Artists are in an ongoing conversation across time, inspiring each other's creativity. Painting is a form of embodied expression that embraces ambiguity, allowing for multiple interpretations.