Old Guitarist Essay

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Old Guitarist

Pablo Picasso was born on October 25, 1881 in Malaga, Spain. His father was an art teacher and a painter. Although Pablo Picasso was classically trained, he would come to "break painting out of its mold" throughout his prolific career (Aviram and Hartnett 207). Picasso first started painting in Spain, and his ideas and techniques evolved first in Barcelona. After that, Picasso spent a large amount of time in Paris pursuing a career in art. When Picasso was in Paris, he helped revolutionize art by developing cubism, a philosophy and style of painting. Cubism has been called a "towering intellectual and artistic achievement that irrevocably altered the course of European art by shattering the spatial field and reassembling its component parts from different angles," ("Picasso, Pablo" 1781). Before he developed cubism in Paris, though, Picasso developed his style in Barcelona during what is usually referred to as his "Blue Period." The painting "The Old Guitarist" (also called "The Blind Guitarist") is emblematic of Picasso's Blue Period.

Picasso's "Blue Period" only lasted a short while, between 1901-1904, but it was an important time in the artist's life, as well as in the history of European art. During this time, Picasso was influenced by prevailing trends in art that focused on subjects that were not typically depicted, such as poor, downtrodden outcasts of society. Street musicians and old blind guitarists made for an ideal subject matter for Picasso to contemplate and depict on canvas, especially as he was influenced by a "circle of symbolist and decadent artists and writers in Barcelona," ("Picasso, Pablo," 1781). Also between the years of 1901 and 1904, Picasso started traveling to Paris often, which introduced Picasso to the contemporary arts of that city too. In particular, French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, who had been depicting the sordid elements of Parisian nightlife including drunks and prostitutes, influenced Picasso's Blue Period ("Picasso, Pablo," 1781). The Blue Period has been called a "preamble to cubism," because it reveals some early tendency toward manipulating the dimensions of space on the canvas. However, Blue Painting pieces like "The Old Guitarist" are not cubist. They are, however, as monochromatic as the name suggests, as during this time Picasso almost exclusively painted with a blue palette.

Picasso himself dismissed his work from this early period in his career as being too "sentimental," (Bertman 1). It is precisely this type of sentimentality that characterizes Blue Period pieces like "The Old Guitarist," which captures the tragic nature of the human experience. Painted in 1903, "The Old Guitarist" depicts the warped, twisted body of a blind old man sitting on the floor playing his guitar. The guitar is the only element of the painting that is not blue, drawing the viewer's attention to the instrument as a counterpoint to the great suffering inherent in the body and visage of the old man.

The color blue used to render human skin imparts a deathly hue, and in fact, Picasso had recently experienced several tragic deaths including the suicide of his best friend and the death of his sister (Gedo). Gedo also notes that Picasso was prone to "blame himself irrationally for the deaths of various friends," and was "morosely preoccupied" with his friend's suicide (153). This is most likely why the artist projects both sadness and guilt onto the canvas in "The Old Guitarist."

It appears as if the old man playing the guitar in "The Old Guitarist" is likewise nearing death. He is thin and frail, and is stooped over. The color blue makes it seem like there is little lifeblood left in the old man, but only just enough for him to strum the guitar he knows so well. The man's clothes are little more than "rags," and he sits on the street, suggesting that he is homeless (Bertman 1). The selection of the subject matter was more than simply walking past a homeless man playing the guitar. The guitar plays an important role as a motif in Picasso's art, and would be a central image in some of his early cubist compositions. The guitar is a quintessentially Spanish instrument, so in some ways, the guitar may symbolize Picasso's identity and cultural heritage. Other Spanish artists had also latched onto the guitar as a motif in their work. In fact, Francisco Goya had even "portrayed blind guitarists in a number of his paintings and prints," (Gedo 153). Picasso may have also been influenced stylistically by El Greco, the Greek artist who lived and worked in Spain.

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The "pathetic blind figure" in "The Old Guitarist" has "angular emaciated limbs" that "recall the paintings of El Greco ("Picasso, Pablo," 1781).

There may also be autobiographical elements in the painting too. For instance, Picasso was living with his parents at the time but was traveling incessantly to Paris (Gedo). The semi-itinerant lifestyle is symbolized by the homeless, itinerant guitarist in the painting. The blind guitarist has also been dubbed a "cipher for the modern artist," ("Picasso, Pablo" 1781). The motif of the blind musician is one that stems back to ancient Greece, as in ancient Greek literature blind musicians were often considered prophets. As Bertman states, "Like the blind prophet, Tiresias in the Greek tragedies, [the guitarist] has seen all and knows the tragic destination of our strivings -- all result in loneliness and death." Furthermore, the blind prophet is an ironic seer. He is sightless but can see into the future and perceive the truths that sighted people may miss. In this same way, Picasso believed that "art is the lie to help us see the truth," (Bertman 1).

"The Old Guitarist" connects with the viewer on social, psychological, and spiritual levels. Picasso, when he painted the work, was in a state of poverty and related to the poor that he saw on the streets. The Old Guitarist is one such character, and calls the audience's attention to the inherent humanity of the poor. The guitarist is a withered figure, with pale blue skin, and skeletal features -- a shadow of humanity at death, and a reminder that even those on the streets live and die like the rest of us.

This is a powerful psychological motif. The blue color is powerful because it conveys things like sorrow and death. The pale blue skin links the audience with death, and the overwhelmingly blue palette asks the viewer to feel sorrow for the plight of the old guitarist. This is not a painting that refrains from asking for an emotional response. Psychologically, Picasso may also have been working within the context of his own examination of life and death. This was prevalent during the blue period, influenced by the suicide of his friend. Picasso indulged in the psychological analysis of the nature of life, where there can be sorrow at every turn, and he asks the viewer to do the same with this painting.

There is also a spiritual dimension to the painting, on a couple of levels. Certainly, the existential nature of life aspect has a spiritual dimension. The guitarist is close to the end of his life, and Picasso asks the viewer to consider the end of life, which in early 20th century Spain would certainly have been a spiritual meditation based on Catholic faith. That said, this is not an overtly religious image. A different sort of spiritual element arises with the guitar. This is the one element in the painting that is not blue. Thus, the guitar clearly has special meaning. The image of the guitarist and guitar is common in Spanish art, reminiscent of El Greco, and has deeper meaning within Spanish culture. Highlighting the brighter color of the guitar may also be Picasso's way of examining the role that music plays in one's spiritual well-being. Music does lift the soul, and here the guitar is the one thing that the old guitarist has in his otherwise miserable life. That Picasso also chooses to see the power of the music is a reflection of this element of Spanish culture.

Moreover, on a personal level, our culture associates blue with sorrow, and with the blues. The Old Guitarist may have predated Robert Johnson, but he carries with him the same sorrow that he doubtless plays on his instrument. The blues remind us to embrace sorrow and accept it as part of life and Picasso may well be doing the same thing, in particular by placing the lively element of music alongside such a decrepit figure as this old guitarist, homeless and near death on the street. That the background is nondescript is also important. While it is assumed that this is set in Barcelona, the image has a universality because of the lack of background -- any audience can relate to this old guitarist on some level, as they have probably seen people just like him on the streets of their city. Indeed, the image is so evocative of medieval imagery (Aviram and Hartnett 216) that is.....

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