“Painting is just another way of keeping a diary,” said Pablo Picasso. And in his “diary” the Spanish artist particularly liked to record people—the human figure in the abstract, and the lovers, family, and friends that made up his inner circle. Picasso deconstructed and reconstructed, teasing subjects into expressive dimensionality, here accentuating their power, there projecting his power upon them, always giving them new truth. “Colors, like features, follow the changes of the emotions,” he explained. Consisting of 75 paintings, works on paper, and sculptures from the Musée national Picasso-Paris, this exhibition tracks the human figure as Picasso re-sees it in every period of his long career. A major show, its only U.S. venue is the Frist. —E.C.