Object number2005.11
Verre, guitare, partition
Date1922-1923
Artist
Pablo Picasso
(Spanish, 1881-1973)
MediumOil and sand on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 21 1/4 × 32 in. (54 × 81.3 cm)
Framed: 27 9/16 × 38 3/16 × 2 3/8 in. (70 × 97 × 6 cm)
Framed: 27 9/16 × 38 3/16 × 2 3/8 in. (70 × 97 × 6 cm)
Credit LineGift of Virginia Herrick Deknatel, class of 1929, in honor of Frances Daly Fergusson, President of Vassar College 1986-2006
On View
On viewPeriod20th c
Classification(s)
Japan, Ishibashi Museum of Art, "Paris--New York; Modern Paintings in 19th and 20th Century Master Works from the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York," May 17 - July 20, 2008. Cat. no. , p .
Japan, Yamagata Museum of Art, "Paris--New York; Modern Paintings in 19th and 20th Century Master Works from the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York," July 30 - August 31, 2008. Cat. no. , p. .
Japan. Fuchu Art Museum, "Paris--New York; Modern Paintings in 19th and 20th Century Master Works from the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York," September 6 - November 3, 2008. Cat. no. , p. .
Japan, Miyazaki Prefectural Art Museum, "Paris--New York; Modern Paintings in 19th and 20th Century Master Works from the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York," November 14 - December 14, 2008. Cat. , p. .
Label TextThe guitar was one of Picasso's most frequently recurring motifs in the 1910s-20s, and played a central role in his explorations of various cubist styles. A subject that recalled the artist's Spanish roots, the guitar served as a vehicle for wide-ranging formal experimentation. This tabletop scene, an example of synthetic cubist painting, focuses on flat, colorful, and layered forms that recall elements of early cubist cut-paper collages. Formal and representational ambiguities abound, as in the central rectangular outline that seems to simultaneously suggest the body of the guitar while also echoing the sheet music placed behind it. Likewise, Picasso created a visual rhyme between the horizontal guitar strings and the bars on the empty musical score. Such elements invite the viewer to actively participate in interpreting and synthesizing the image. Speaking about cubism in 1923, Picasso stated, "In our subjects we keep the joy of discovery, the pleasure of the unexpected."
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