In the manner of Pablo Picasso
Spanish, 1881–1973
Cat on the Keyboard, 2026
Oil on canvas
100 × 80 cm
Never painted.
Commissioned for the collection, 2026.
PAB 2026.18.5
A cat lies across a laptop keyboard, its body a set of curved and angular planes, one paw on the keys and one eye on us. The screen tips back at an angle no hinge allows. Picasso painted cats catching birds as scenes of plain cruelty. This cat is doing something crueller. It has sat on the one thing you need, and it knows.
The brief
A cat sprawled across a laptop keyboard, its body a set of curved and angular planes, the screen tilted at an impossible angle. Analytical and synthetic Cubist oil painting, a figure or object fractured into overlapping geometric planes seen from several angles at once, muted ochres, greys and slate blues with passages of bold flat colour, heavy black contour lines, both eyes on one side of a face, collage-like flatness, chalky matte surface. Museum photograph of the oil painting, flat even lighting, no frame, no text, no wall, no floor, cropped to the canvas edge.
Written to the house rules. The painter's name does not appear.
Take it home
The painting on this room's wall, at its own proportions, nothing written on it.
