The Old Guitarist

This week's analysis is of "The Old Guitarist", by Pablo Picasso. This piece has intrigued me for ages, so it was one of my first choices for a visual piece to take a close look at. Picasso is a world renown French artist from the 20th century, and is one of the most influential artists of all time. He is best known for his co-invention of collage and work with the style of cubism. "The Old Guitarist" is still one of his most famous pieces, despite not being in his trademark cubist style. It is a blue monochromatic picture of a haggard old man playing the guitar. The context of this piece was that it was painted in Picasso's blue period, a time where Picasso developed a somber and blue monochromatic style that depicted his depression. His close friend had just committed suicide and on top of that he was very poor. Both tragedies are obviously depicted in this piece, as the man is so skeletal he seems to be starving. He is also sad and posed in a way that depicts despair. Picasso's audience is anyone who appreciated 20th century impressionist art. The subject of the painting is the guitar, greatly emphasized by the contrasting brown to the blue tone. This leads the audience to see that the guitar seems to be the only means of the old man clinging to life in his state of depression. This leads me to the believe his purpose is to depict the life of an artist, clinging to a means of self-expression in a time of such tragedy. His color and subject emphasis is very effective because it evokes the same sense of depression Picasso was feeling in the audience, and the subject provides an effective metaphor for hardships Picasso was dealing with.