Head on a Beige Background

‘If it were not for the eyes and mouth, this painting of a head could easily be interpreted as a geometric form—an architectural study or a monument. The shape is regular and rigid unlike the odd, curvaceous “boomerang” heads and bodies from Dinard in 1928. The vertical positioning of the mouth and eyes suggests Picasso’s persistent exploration of unique and multiple vantage points. The two dots to the left of the eyes represent nostrils.

The sparse linear rendering of this head can be linked to Picasso’s Céret collages from the spring of 1913 in which he reverses his earlier Analytical Cubist intention and begins to use line to build rather than fragment the forms of nature. Here, definition depends entirely on outline, as there is no attempt at shading, con-trast, or coloration to indicate volume or depth. The work thus epitomizes the purity of line that appeared in the drawings and collages made at Céret and became especially evident in the iron-rod sculptures of 1928 and 1929, such as the earliest versions of the Monument to Apollinaire (MP 264, 265 and Figure).

As discussed in the exhibition catalogue Picasso and the Age of Iron [1], the collaboration between Picasso and the Catalan sculptor Julio González started in 1928 in González’s Paris studio near the Montparnasse train station. There Picasso learned metalworking techniques that he applied to his own metal assemblages and sculptures and later reinterpreted into two-dimensional works such as the 1924 line-and-dot drawings from Juan-les-Pins and the monumental rectilinear construction used in 1927 and 1928 in the two famous paintings of the artist’s studio (The Studio, z.VII.142, and The Painter and his Model, Z.VII. 143, both MOMA, New York).

A 1929-1930 sketchbook contains a drawing (Studies for Woman in Red Armchair [Zervos VII, 291], Woman in an Armchair [Zervos VII, 294], Bust of a Woman [Zervos VII, 247], Head of a Girl [Zervos VII, 293]) that has the same shape and features as the Museum’s painting. Other sketches on the sheet are studies for identified paintings, including one for the bust of a woman (Woman in a Red Armchair) in the Musée Picasso, which remained in the artist’s estate like the present painting and is composed of nearly identical geometric volumes and lines. Although the two works differ only slightly in composition (e.g., the opposite curve of the woman’s hair—to the viewer’s right in the painting under discussion), their color and texture are markedly different. The figure of the seated woman gains depth and a sense of mass through varied color and shading; the present painting, seemingly flat, acquires some sense of depth when the painted lines are seen as akin to a wire sculpture. The eyes reinforce this ambiguity between two- and three-dimensionality because they can be interpreted as either on a plane or suspended in space. With minimal means, the work thus becomes a complex expression of visual irony’ [2].


[1] GIMÉNEZ, Carmen, Dore Ashton y Francisco Calvo Serraller. Picasso and the Age of Iron. [Exh. cat. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York]. New York: The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, 1993, pp. 28-29. [2] GIMÉNEZ, Carmen (ed). Collection Museo Picasso Málaga. Malaga: Museo Picasso Málaga, 2003, pp. 99-101.