Picasso's Old Guitarist Essay

Picasso painted for himself, as a release from the pressures of his society and as a way to express his thoughts and problems in tangible form. For this reason, the events happening around the time of any Picasso work must be understood before the true meaning of any resulting art can be understood.

A piece of art is not limited to a painting that captures a representation of imagery. Art is anything that stirs emotions in a person or makes them think, just like Marcel Duchamp accomplished in 1917 with one of his most famous pieces Fountain. Art can be anything that captures and represents the artists emotions, mental state, and personality with every brushstroke, and the usage of colors while also reflecting the mentality, thoughts, and major events that occur in a certain period, such as Picasso’s Guernica. To understand the message that the artist is trying to convey, one must look deeper than what is on the surface of the artwork, which is what I will do with this piece of art, scrutinizing its mysteries as well as its motives.

The dark blue left eye and light blue right tells me that Pablo Picasso may have used her actual eye color. Her body is almost as if she had her back to Picasso and turning her torso toward him; such as in most contrapposto art. In the original sketch you can clearly see her arms and the detail of her body. She is not looking back at Picasso, but instead looking toward the opening curtain. The hair of the young lady is also more visible as it drapes down her back. By repositioning her arm and adding the mask he completely changed her appearance, not only in her face but her body as well. Picasso gave her a double point of view, as you look at her nose and the angles it provides. The hand under the chin gives it an almost claw like feature, with what seems to be her fingers going to her eye to her the opposite side of the chin. With the sharp angles and mask and all the distortion it would be difficult to truly see just the young lady. It is almost as if she is shards of glass pieced together to make a

Pablo Picasso endured much poverty and hardships in his life. He knew what it was like to be at the bottom of societies standards. He dropped out of school at age 16 to pursue a better art education. Picasso and one of his close friends moved to Paris looking better art opportunities. Picasso’s friend later that year committed suicide. These experiences led him to paint the blue period where many dark and depressing painting were created by him. The paintings during the blue period were exact reflections of the poverty, pain, and loss in Picasso’s life. One of the most famous paintings to come from his blue period is, The Old Guitarist. Picasso created this painting in Madrid in 1903.

A large mural, Guernica is an example of Synthetic Cubism painted by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). Created using the medium of oil paint on canvas with a narrow palette consisting of the neutral hues: white, grey and black; the formalist qualities of Guernica can have harrowing effects on the spectator, “But to see it in real life, in its full size, is an even stronger emotional experience. Some people have said they experienced an instant rush of many powerful, fearful emotions” (The Open University, 2016, Block 3, 2.2.2).

Perturbed times in life often were the influence for Picasso’s paintings. Colors and shades were used on the paintings created to reflect all of the troublesome times he went through and how much of an effect those

However, Picasso made it evident that he was a gifted artist when he introduced the world to his own style of painting during what was known as "Picasso's Blue Period." The Blue Period marked a time in Picasso's career from 1901-1904 that defined the different real-life experiences that he had been exposed to throughout his life. It is rumored that Picasso's blue period began briefly after the death of a close friend, and the blue tones were used to reflect his feelings of bleakness during that time (GME, 1996). Most of his paintings during the blue period consisted of blind, impoverished, despaired people, and the paintings were done mostly in blue tones. One of the most famous pieces created during the period was called "The Old Guitarist," which depicts a saddened, blind, old man holding his guitar.

Picasso is an abstract artist, and therefore is thought of as “unskilled,” by the way he accentuates parts of the human figure. Picasso’s art had the most impact on the twentieth century. Even though he suggests going against what he had learned academically, it is important to know that he had started at a very young age. His father was a drawing teacher and a conservator at a small museum. Soon after his father became a professor at the art academy in Barcelona, the young Picasso completed the entrance examinations and was accepted to the school’s upper-level program. Picasso went to Paris determined to work through the avant-gardes’ techniques and subjects to better understand such art.

Guernica is monochromatic to make its imagery more powerful. Lack of color keeps the viewer focused on the subject matter at hand, as well as keeping the mural cold, which agrees with its general theme of injustice in war. Also, Picasso’s flat imagery does not distract the viewer from concentrating on imagery. The viewer is given no other choice than to concentrate on the subject matter of Guernica and ponder it’s meaning. The flat, grayscale images generalize the imagery and contribute to the general theme of unnecessary suffering and tragedy.

Picasso during The Blue Period was heavily influenced by what happens around him. Right before the beginning of The Blue Period, Picasso heard of Carlos Casagemas suicide. Carlos was a good friend of Picasso and recalled “I started painting in blue when I learned of Casagemas's death”. Nick and Picasso share an interesting parial with the death of one of their friends. Nick’s and Picasso’s worlds changed color and become a blue dark mess of despair and sadness. Nick turned to alcohol and Picasso painted some of the most depressing paintings ever know to

Picasso used several principle and element of art while painting “Guernica”. Some of the elements include value, line, shape, color and, space.

Have you ever gotten so into a song or a piece of music that you feel like it is a part of you? In Peter Vigil’s Painting, Celle-no Hands Required he describes just that. In the painting, Celle-No Hand Required, Peter Vigil uses bold color use and solid lines to express that musicians don’t just play their instrument or music, they become it.

Here Colesscott has developed Picasso’s abstraction and ‘Africanism’ in line with European influences. Colescott has made this famous image his own, in terms of color and content, whilst still making his inspiration clear. Picasso’s borrowing of the original art piece allowed him to remodel the painting into one that contains a different interpretation of society, context, colors and formal expressions. Picasso saw the strength and valuable assets in the original painting and stole them into his own like an artist, making use of the best features and enhancing them through his own

There is little sign of life about the man, his shoulders are bony and his pose cramped, as if to show that he finds no ease in the world around him. In 1905 close to the ending of his Blue Period Picasso decided to move back to Paris. It was here that he met Fernande Oliver and eventually fell in love with her. Picasso’s paintings took a drastic change. He went from painting beggars and outcast to happy, healthy circus performers and families. It was obvious that Picasso’s first love had a tremendous effect on his art. Picasso’s paintings no longer consisted of blue tones but instead took on more delicate rose tones. Fernande Oliver reflected his work and his happiness. One of Picasso’s best works linked his Blue and Rose Period was The Frugal Repast. The painting had a beautiful healthy looking woman being embraced by a long dirty, hungry man. Picasso felt this way about Fernande Oliver. He pictured himself as a poverty stricken man who was lucky enough to be with a beautiful woman. From the time 1905 to 1906 Picasso entered the Rose Period. Subtle pinks and grays with even brighter tones were the colors Picasso used. Some people also believed the warm tones of this period were influence by Picasso’s habit of smoking opium (Ripley 101). Picasso was fascinated with clowns, acrobats, and other families of the

The word art is an encompassing one, vastly interpreted and with multiple definitions. In the case of Picasso's painting Guernica, art informs, educates and expresses. Its power lies in its ability to capture and compel an audience nearly six decades after the modern world's "other" day of infamy. To understand fully the painting that evolved out of the Spanish painter's outrage, one must know its context. "Why do you think I date everything I do? Because it is not sufficient to know an artist's works--it is also necessary to know when he did them, why, under what circumstances" (Picasso). An appreciator who knows the saga of Spain's historical fishing village is given a depth of experience that only a genius like