“The Old Guitarist” by Pablo Picasso: Critique

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“My mother said to me, “If you are a soldier, you will become a general. If you are a monk, you will become the Pope.” Instead, I was a painter, and became Picasso.”

– Pablo Ruiz Picasso

When the discussion comes up about the subject of the monochromatic color schemes, I usually think of Picasso and his famous “Blue Period”, especially about “The Old Guitarist” painting.

“The Old Guitarist” painting was created in 1903, after the of Picasso’s friend Carlos Casagemas committed suicide, along with “blue” pieces such as world known “The Tragedy”. The Blue Period lasted from 1901 to 1904. We may easily define it by its melancholy mood and hues. In the “blue period” Picasso showed the life of the poor. Such painting as “The Old Guitarist” is considered as one of the most popular works of the century in the art world. The painting reveals to us a blind beggar that is dressed in tattered and torn clothes. He is sitting in a somewhat curved manner around his old guitar. The distortion of beggar’s features and his elongated limbs may seem as the reminiscent of the El Greco’s work. The prototype of the old guitarist was a blind artist whom Picasso met in Madrid.

The blind guitarist is actually not unlike Picasso known as a modern artist. Like Picasso, his subject is not accepted by those who were around him, and yet they are totally dependent upon them. While playing the guitar a blind man is searching the inspiration for his soul. The same way the modern artist does; he makes an attempts to break the certain shackles of his own classic schooling, but he has nothing to guide him at the same time. It may seem that the theme of alienation is prevalent in the most pieces of the Blue Period. But we can also deny that Picasso is also criticizing society by his somber representing of the poor.

Picasso’s art Blue Period was dominated by such features as: sadness, melancholy, and the predominant color blue. The main characters of his paintings are poor street people, some times – prostitutes and, of course, beggars. It was a hard time in Picasso’s young life, but he gave very powerful emotion to his paintings.

If we are talking about the art history as the whole, then we need to mention that Picasso made a great impact in transition process between the classic art those one of his schooling and the new art form he was going to create known as cubism or abstract art.

“The Old Guitarist” by Pablo Picasso is one of the most famous paintings of his Blue period. I would like to describe it. It is an oil painting on 122.9 x 82.6 cm panel.

The oil of this painting is relevant to what Picasso was creating during this time period. The artist used blues, blacks and grays colors in this work.

If we are talking about the technique used in this painting, then we need to say that color lineup causes a dark and in a certain way melodramatic look on this painting. It is known fact that oil itself mixes everything together, so it makes colors stand out really much pronounced than common regular mediums. While painting “The Old Guitarist”, Picasso used a monochrome palette. This actually means that the forms in this painting are flattened, they are with tragic themes.

Unlike other Picasso’s paintings, the size of “The Old Guitarist” is relatively small. Its size is less than a foot, what makes it look like a nondescript portrait. Some critics think that such issue downsizes the effect on a person that is viewing it. I think this was done not to do this, but to metaphor the old man correctly in this painting. The person, while walking by a beggar who is seating the side of the street, usually does not look at him with the interest. So does Picasso actually try to achieve such an effect by his painting’s size.

The Blue Period helped Picasso to advance as an artist, to expand his views and his painting techniques. All works, with similar forms, of the Blue Period represent the similar Picasso’s gallery.

Such paintings as “The Old Guitarist” fully describe Picasso’s life, they often reflect very tragic moments. The Blue Period years of young Picasso’s life showed his life how it truly was: poverty, struggle, wretchedness. Picasso was basically a poor wretch; that is why he was able to understand the pain and struggle of those who were underneath the “normal” society.

Another factor that led to the Blue Period, and to “The Old Guitarist”, was that, as well as other young artist’s, Picasso was trying to follow in the Toulouse-Lautrec’s footsteps.

So we can say that his surroundings affected his work greatly. They were implemented into his paintings, influencing their current form and creating their content. The content of “The Old Guitarist” is very interesting. The symbolist movement appeared when Picasso was just beginning the Blue Period. “The Old Guitarist” actually represents that movement. We can prove this because of its certain association with the beggar’s blind eyes, but we should not forget about certain “inner vision”.

Lael Wartenbaker said about Picasso’s painting that: “Such wretched creatures, many of them so blind, all of them alienated from society, became the principals of Picasso’s Blue period paintings. The use of monochrome served to dissociate these figures from time and place; it also served to emphasize that the joys of shifting light and varied color had no place in their bleak milieu. In all the works of the Blue Period, Picasso’s intent is perhaps most clearly set forth in The Old Guitarist, a study of a mystical El Greco-like figure sitting cross-legged. There’s little sign of life about the man; his shoulders are bony and his pose is cramped, as if to suggest that he finds no ease in the world around him”.

I think that “The Old Guitarist” lives a strong impression in those people hearts that have seen it at least once. After viewing it Wallace Stevens wrote the poem on its honor – “The Man With the Blue Guitar”. The blueness in this poem becomes an image of the certain creational power of art. He expressed these in the opening lines of the poem:

The man bent over his guitar,

A shearsman of sorts. The day was green.

They said, “You have a blue guitar,

You do not play things as they are.”

The man replied, “Things as they are

Are changed upon the blue guitar.”

And they said then, “But play, you must,

A tune beyond us, yet ourselves,

A tune upon the blue guitar

Of things exactly as they are.”

References

Boeck, W., & Sabartés, J. (1955). Picasso. New York: Harry N. Abrams.

Domenico, K., Goldberg, S., Manheim, J., Mcenroe, J. C., Pokinski, D., & Watson, S. (2001). Artists, Writers, and Musicians : An Encyclopedia of People Who Changed the World / (M. Bossy, T. Brothers, & J. C. Mcenroe, Ed.). Westport, CT: Oryx Press.

Eglinton, K. A. (2003). Art in the Early Years. New York: RoutledgeFalmer.

Everdell, W. R. (1998). The First Moderns: Profiles in the Origins of Twentieth-Century Thought. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Hargrove, N. D. (1998). The Great Parade: Cocteau, Picasso, Satie, Massine, Diaghilev – and T.S. Eliot. Mosaic (Winnipeg), 31(1), 83+.

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“The Old Guitarist” by Pablo Picasso: Critique

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