How I See It

These four words are the last recourse of the cornered student, whose painting has not gone as they had intended. Looking defiantly up at me as I gaze down at their work, they fend off any criticism with the phrase, "But that's how I see it."

Really?

Is this how Picasso actually saw his women? Or is it the result of a radical new approach to painting after the camera had cornered the market on single viewpoint images?

And is this how Bacon saw people? Or is it a commentary on humanity after four years of world-wide warfare?

Are these great artists, in fact, doing anything different to the child who painted this, who was working with her colours and her feelings at the same time and giving them both equal sway?

Isn't it also a matter of what happens when you just put the paint on?

Bacon said that he worked with what the paint suggested. Picasso said that art is a lie that makes us realise truth.

Are their paintings how they saw things?

No, but it's how they meant them.