Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum has presented the exhibition “Paris and the Avant-Garde: Modern Masters from the Guggenheim Collection” which introduces some masterpieces of the XX century art. The beginning of the XX century is characterized by the flourishing of the so-called avant-gardism in art.
One of the pieces presented is the famous still life by Pablo Picasso Mandolin and Guitar (1924). This piece of art, vibrantly colored, is implemented in a Synthetic Cubist style, with its overlapping forms, which asserts the value of the technique. Mandolin and Guitar impresses with the undulating lines and chromatic elements which evolve sensual style of Picasso’s art. It is interesting that Picasso started painting in very realistic manner, and only with the course of time he became one of the most important figures of avant-gardism. Speaking about the definite things depicted on the painting it is possible to name to main items: musical instruments. Of course, a lot of people cannot understand this technique, accusing the artist of being too childish, for this work really differs from the realistic works, and does remind child picture. But since this is a cubistic painting one should mind the inner world of it, one should focus on emotions this art evokes, for the main point of all works of avant-gardism is their symbolic nature, their inner meaning. “The painter… conceives himself as a reflection of the objects he has put into his pictures and he lives in the reflections of his pictures…” (Stein 4) In terms of this art importance it is necessary to point out the great impact it produced to the development of the cubism movement and the world art. A lot of artists and even ordinary people were inspired by Picasso’s cubistic paintings and this very art in particular.
And I can definitely say I am among those people affected by Mandolin and Guitar. It is quite difficult to explain why I choose this very piece of art for there no vivid reasons. I wouldn’t say I like it very much because I don’t really understand the technique, and cannot say I admire cubism. But despite all this the painting is so interesting and unusual, it is so surprisingly different. Those bright colors, sharp and at the same time unrealistic lines, combining of stillness and movement made me think I am inside of some kind of kaleidoscope or surrealistic cartoon. The clouds in the sky get into the room through the windows, the instruments and vase moving very slowly all over the room. And as for the impression this painting produces, to my mind, is calmness and safety, when you are in your own world where only happiness and the good rules.
Mandolin and Guitar by Picasso can be juxtaposed with the times it was made in. For that was the time after the World War I, when people started forgetting the horrors of the war and began building their peaceful world (Stearns et al. 388). People felt like heroes who defeated great danger and tried to live on; they, of course, couldn’t even imagine the horrors waiting the world in future. And in the art of that time the revolution started. Artists didn’t want the old realistic means of expressing themselves, they needed new ideas, new forms, new world. And one of these worlds was cubism and Picasso himself, who wrote a great number of masterpieces, among which Mandolin and Guitar.
Works Cited
Stein, Gertrude. Picasso. New York: Dover Publications, Inc., 1984.
Stearns, P.N., Adas M., Schwartz, S.B., GilbertWorld, M.J. Civilizations:The Global Experience, Volume II – 1450 To Present(Chapters 21-40). London: Pearson Education, 2004.