Small Cubist Head
1936
Julio González, a close friend of Picasso who actually taught him how to weld metal, brings that same structural energy to paper here. The face is shattered into jagged planes of deep forest green, mustard yellow, and bold red, perfectly capturing the Cubist obsession with breaking reality into puzzle pieces. Loose, scribbly black lines give the portrait a raw, immediate feel, like a quick sketch of a radical idea. It’s a fascinating glimpse into how a master sculptor thought about form and volume, translating 3D concepts onto a flat surface long before picking up a hammer.