This untitled artwork by Pablo Picasso, created in 1929, is a fine example of his surrealist period. The portrait, rendered in oil on canvas, measures 16 x 22 cm. As with many works by Picasso during this era, the piece embodies the avant-garde spirit of Surrealism, questioning the conventional portrayal of subjects and experimenting with form, color, and perspective.
The artwork presents a highly abstracted and distorted figure which is characteristic of Picasso’s style, particularly within his surrealist works where he played with form and the subconscious. The palette consists of bold colors—declarative reds, yellows, and blues—that segment the composition into a series of shapes and curves. Though the rendering is abstract, the semblance of a face with eyes and other facial features can be discerned, indicating the genre of the portrait. The application of paint is varied, with areas of thicker impasto juxtaposing smoother planes, providing a tactile quality to the work.
Picasso’s brushstrokes are evident, contributing to the dynamism of the piece, and give a sense of immediacy to the viewer’s experience. The artwork does not adhere to realistic proportions or perspectives; instead, it fragments and reconstitutes the form to evoke a dream-like, introspective exploration of identity, emblematic of the Surrealist movement’s objectives to unleash the creative potential of the unconscious mind.
