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...

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…