Woman Dressing Her Hair 1940

Picasso made this painting of a woman doing her hair with oil paint. I love the limited palette, the different shades of green, gray, and brown - it gives the picture a sculptural, almost stony, feeling. I can imagine Picasso standing in front of the canvas, turning a thought over in his mind. It’s like he’s saying, ‘OK, what if a body was made of these geometric forms, arranged in this way?’ Painting is a way of seeing, but also a way of thinking about the world. Look at the way he renders the breasts and the ribcage. Picasso wasn’t interested in making a perfect copy. He wants to show us the underlying structure, the abstract pattern. Painters are constantly inspired by each other's ways of seeing and are in conversation across time. When we engage with a painting like this, we enter into that exchange. It’s not about finding one correct interpretation, but about opening ourselves to new ways of seeing and experiencing.