The_Old_Guitarist

The Old Guitarist In his “blue period” Picasso depicted the world of the poor. “The Old Guitarist,” which is an example his work during that time, is one of the most famous yet cheerless images from the twentieth century art world. The image remains as much an enigma today as it did ninety-nine years ago. Upon viewing Picasso’s “The Old Guitarist”, one immediately notices the subject, the aged musician, and perhaps the muted blue color scheme, but looking further, the viewer realizes several disturbing details. First of all, Picasso’s intention with this particular work seems to be the conveyance of feelings he has toward the old musician. One has no problem understanding the immediate message Picasso wishes to impart. Immediately the viewer is confronted with a solitary, aged guitarist. The artist chose a guitarist for his subject knowing that this is a solo instrument, and therefore, this musician spends his time playing it without accompaniment. There is nothing to suggest that this guitarist is playing to an audience. This is a scene played out with every musician during the uncounted hours of practice. These hours spent in practice make up the vast majority guitarist, musician, old, viewer, picasso, colors, time, subject, perhaps, one, world, therefore, picasso’s, painting, life, instrument, guitar, gives, blue, years, work, suggesting, string, spent, spends, sits, realization, rather, practice, poor, playing, out, man, make, looking