Art Comparison Pablo Picasso\'s \"Guitar, Sheet Music

Art Comparison

Pablo Picasso's "Guitar, Sheet Music and Wine Glass" is a paper collage with ink. The 1912 work is from his Cubist period, but is far less formal than many of his Cubist paintings. Rather, than pure geometric patterns there is some definition of shape, but also incorporations of curves and circles. This informality is echoed in the background of the artwork which is a pattern of diamond-shaped tiles with flowers in the center. The effect is of some wallpaper in someone's living room as opposed to cutting-edge, modern art. The guitar is only represented in the painting by figures but is the emphasis of the piece. There are two curved segments with a heavy-grain wood pattern which indicate the left side of the guitar. In addition there is a blue rectangular shape at the top of this segment which functions as the fret bar of the instrument. A central white circle and a black semi-half circle at the bottom are the last pieces of the guitar. Interestingly, a blank space showing the background wallpaper imagery comprises nearly half of the guitar, yet the stringed instrument is still highly prevalent. In front of the guitar, yet still not as important it seems is a square piece of paper which is clearly sheet music. In the bottom left-hand side of the work is a scrap of yellow paper in French. It appears to be from a newspaper, but it is difficult to tell and therefore it is hard to understand exactly what its purpose is in the context of the artwork. The final part of the work is a white rectangular with an ink drawing. What this drawing is intended to depict is clear only because of the title of the work. If not for the word "glass" it would be unclear as it is highly abstract, but the curves and lines give it a vaguely but indefinitely musical impression which contributes to the entire informality of the piece.

Normal Lewis's oil painting on canvas entitled "Harlem Jazz Jamboree" is an abstract piece which uses color and line to indicate a raucous musical scene. There are eleven vaguely human characters in the painting. Some are very clearly defined and painted in more realistic tones and shades than the other figures. Indeed, some are closer to caricatures of human faces with some shade to indicate skin and then black or red lines to create facial features. Three instruments can be seen; one is a piano which is only clearly indicated by the delineated black and white keys, another is a yellow trumpet which is rendered more geometrically, and then a square black and colored grid which may or may not be some sort of percussive instrument. The color palette of the painting is limited to red, white, black, yellow, brown, and blue. The lack of perspective or a singular style in the creation of the characters seems to echo the nature of jazz as a musical form. Often it is not restricted to notes on a page, but rather the musicians instinctually play their notes and form a cohesive sound. Even if they are not starting out with the same vision, they come together through the music. This is what is happening in this painting. With a few lines, the artist indicates human beings from all walks and avenues coming together to create something more valuable as a whole than they could produce as individuals.