Annessa Chan:
Imagine taking a walk on a beach and spotting two rocks basking in the sunlight from a distance. The rocks look smoothed by the wind and seawater, nearly merging together and with the sand around them. But taking a closer look, you’ll see a jumble of body parts emerge: limbs, breasts, mouths, tongues, eyes, all twisted together in a provocative way.
This painting, titled Figures by the Sea, is Picasso making a playground of the human body. Unlike some of Picasso’s other Cubist works, here the figures are entangled creating a sensual and intimate scene. To Picasso, the human figure is a malleable object, like soft clay in a sculptor’s hands. Picasso manages to weave complex emotions into abstract forms and challenges our idea of how the human body should be represented.
This work was created during the summer of 1931 while Picasso was at his French Riviera vacation resort. With the large open spaces at his residence, he set up a studio where he could create large-scale sculptures. This painting of an imaginary monumental sculpture by the sea shows how Picasso often thought across mediums: putting painting in dialogue with sculptural experimentation.