Head of a Woman (Tête de femme)

Discussion

FROM THE BARNES FOUNDATION’S CATALOG

Head of a Woman is often invoked as a canonical example of Picasso's simplified and "Africanized" forms. While on some occasions the artist did point to "geometric simplicity" as well as "sublime beauty" as underpinning his interest in African sculpture, on others, he denied any visual influence altogether. Most consistently, he declared his passionate affinity for the power he perceived in African ritual objects: "the masks weren't like other kinds of sculpture," he stated in 1937. "They were magical things." Perhaps Picasso would have connected the qualities that imbue this painting—the densely lathered background, vigorous strokes, and pops of yellow and blue that emerge from lower paint layers—with the vitality of African art.

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