Punchinello with guitar 1920

Picasso made this painting of Punchinello with a guitar sometime around the 1910s, and it's like he’s trying to build the image rather than just paint it. I see a real process of construction here. The textures and colors are so interesting, aren't they? The red feels theatrical, like you're looking at a stage curtain, and the gray sort of mutes everything. The guitar is built from geometric shapes, like a collage of cardboard, and it's barely there at all. But the little details, like the tiny eye and smile on the figure's face, bring it all to life. There's a lovely back and forth between flat shapes, depth and surface tension. It is like he is using this to define his own personal vision. You can see echoes of Cezanne in this piece, with the fracturing of forms. It’s like he’s asking, "How can painting be remade?".