In the manner of Pablo Picasso
Spanish, 1881–1973
Woman Taking a Selfie, 2026
Oil on canvas
100 × 80 cm
Never painted.
Commissioned for the collection, 2026.
PAB 2026.18.1
She holds her phone at arm's length, and her face is in three places at once: in profile at the left, straight on in the middle, and small on the screen in her hand. Planes of ochre, grey and slate lock them together. Picasso broke faces apart to show every side at once. The front camera does that for anyone who has ever gone looking for their good side.
The brief
A woman holding a phone at arm's length, her face shown simultaneously in profile, frontal view and reflected in the phone screen, fractured planes of ochre and grey. 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.
