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Lot Essay
Buste de femme was painted on 13 January 1970, and it therefore dates from one of the most productive periods of the career of arguably the Twentieth Century's most important artist. Looking at Buste de femme, it is clear that Picassso was still fiercely holding onto his gauntlet as a tireless pioneer, a trailblazer at the head of the avant garde. For this picture has been painted in a manner that recalls the developments in Informel and some of the fascination with Art Brut that had come to flavour the works of many of the most important artists of the post-war period. At the same time, the combination of the black, staring eyes and the rendering of the woman's body recalls some of Picasso's most innovative works from the period just preceding the birth of Cubism. Then, he had been creating figures that combined a sculptural quality with the lessons he had gleaned from increasing exposure to both 'primitive' works of art, be they Iberian or African, and to the pictures of Paul Cézanne; these influences appear in a later incarnation in Buste de femme.
Picasso created this painting with swirling, vigorous, gestural brushstrokes, filling the picture with a sense of movement and of life. This also hints at an awareness of the works of the Action Painters and Abstract Expressionists. Indeed, in this light, the figure in Buste de femme may be seen to anticipate Philip Guston's return to figuration: although he had already been creating figurative works by the time Picasso painted Buste de femme, they were only exhibited and came to public attention later that year, revealing an intriguing synchronicity that is heightened by the presence of the pink, perhaps indicating the Spanish artist's continued contemporary currency.
The eyes in Buste de femme recall both Picasso's earlier paintings and the stylised manner in which he often depicted his second wife, Jacqueline Roque. During the final two decades of his life, Jacqueline's presence within his paintings became more and more constant, and her features are thought to flavour most of the female figures from that time. Picasso's feelings for her were evident in some of the romantic imagery that entered his work, and indeed Buste de femme, with its half-length naked figure, may itself serve as an introduction into a sensual world in which Picasso was living life to the full.
Picasso's friend Christian Zervos and his wife Yvonne were so impressed by the vitality and variety of the works that Picasso created during this period that they arranged an exhibition in the Palais des Papes in Avignon; the exhibition met with many positive reviews. Looking at Buste de femme, with its bold colours and emphatic forms, filled with Picasso's self-evident passion and drive and the consummate skill with which the master has so deftly conjured this woman into existence from a storm of grisaille brushstrokes in the background and the vortex-like flesh-tones of the figure, one cannot help but agree with Jeanine Warnod's assessment of his paintings: 'All of this occurs like a bolt of lightning in an action-painting style which never improvises and is always controlled. Picasso has not a minute to lose; he lives intensely and cries out what he feels in his painting' (J. Warnod, quoted in W. Spies (ed.), Picasso: Painting against Time, exh. cat., Vienna & Dusseldorf, 2006, p. 290).
Picasso created this painting with swirling, vigorous, gestural brushstrokes, filling the picture with a sense of movement and of life. This also hints at an awareness of the works of the Action Painters and Abstract Expressionists. Indeed, in this light, the figure in Buste de femme may be seen to anticipate Philip Guston's return to figuration: although he had already been creating figurative works by the time Picasso painted Buste de femme, they were only exhibited and came to public attention later that year, revealing an intriguing synchronicity that is heightened by the presence of the pink, perhaps indicating the Spanish artist's continued contemporary currency.
The eyes in Buste de femme recall both Picasso's earlier paintings and the stylised manner in which he often depicted his second wife, Jacqueline Roque. During the final two decades of his life, Jacqueline's presence within his paintings became more and more constant, and her features are thought to flavour most of the female figures from that time. Picasso's feelings for her were evident in some of the romantic imagery that entered his work, and indeed Buste de femme, with its half-length naked figure, may itself serve as an introduction into a sensual world in which Picasso was living life to the full.
Picasso's friend Christian Zervos and his wife Yvonne were so impressed by the vitality and variety of the works that Picasso created during this period that they arranged an exhibition in the Palais des Papes in Avignon; the exhibition met with many positive reviews. Looking at Buste de femme, with its bold colours and emphatic forms, filled with Picasso's self-evident passion and drive and the consummate skill with which the master has so deftly conjured this woman into existence from a storm of grisaille brushstrokes in the background and the vortex-like flesh-tones of the figure, one cannot help but agree with Jeanine Warnod's assessment of his paintings: 'All of this occurs like a bolt of lightning in an action-painting style which never improvises and is always controlled. Picasso has not a minute to lose; he lives intensely and cries out what he feels in his painting' (J. Warnod, quoted in W. Spies (ed.), Picasso: Painting against Time, exh. cat., Vienna & Dusseldorf, 2006, p. 290).