Henry Taylor was born in 1958 and came to painting late. He was working as a psychiatric technician in a state hospital when he enrolled, in his late 30s, at CalArts. The delay shows in the work. Taylor’s paintings are direct and unguarded: friends, strangers, public figures, and unnamed passersby are all rendered with a loose urgency. “If I don’t like you, I’m not going to paint you,” the artist has said, “but I like most people so it makes painting portraits easy.” The first exhibition on Taylor in France—a major retrospective—explores the influence of Picasso on Taylor and the broader American scene. —Elena Clavarino