Head of a Man with a Mustache

Pablo Picasso

1913 · Ink, charcoal, and graphite on newspaper · Modern and Contemporary Art

This drawing is on a full sheet of newspaper, a rare and radical choice for Picasso, who enjoyed the quality of fine-art paper. Here the artist tests the limits for identifying facial features by depicting only the curve of the ear that echoes the outline of a cheek or skull and the upturned curls of a mustache placed below a trapezoid that can also be read as a nose. By orienting this sheet of newspaper upside down, Picasso encouraged the viewer to see the printed words as visual and graphic marks devoid of semantic meaning: for example, the letter "B" from the "Scrubb’s Ammonia" advertisement mirrors the shape of the double-curved ear.

Artist

Pablo Picasso

Date

1913

Medium

Ink, charcoal, and graphite on newspaper

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection, Gift of Leonard A. Lauder, 2016