In the manner of Pablo Picasso
Spanish, 1881–1973
Man with Earbuds, 2026
Oil on canvas
100 × 80 cm
Never painted.
Commissioned for the collection, 2026.
PAB 2026.18.3
A man in a cap tilts his head, a white earbud in the ear nearest us, its cable dropping down his chest. His face is a stack of grey and blue planes, and the ear is drawn twice, once as an ear and once as a shape. Picasso painted guitarists until the man and the guitar were one instrument. The guitar has gone. He is still listening to something.
The brief
A man in a cap listening with white earbuds, head tilted, his skull, ear and jaw shown as overlapping angular planes in grey and blue. 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.
