1912 Guitare Jaime Eva Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Period of creation: 1908-1918

The composition presents a still life arrangement dominated by a musical instrument – likely a guitar – rendered in a fragmented and abstracted style. The artist dismantled the objects conventional form, reassembling its components across multiple perspectives simultaneously. This approach challenges traditional notions of spatial representation and visual coherence.
Here we see the instrument’s body depicted as a series of overlapping planes, delineated by sharp lines and subtle shifts in color. A warm palette of ochres, browns, and yellows defines the guitars form, contrasted against a background composed of cooler grays and blacks. The neck and headstock are similarly fractured, their outlines dissolving into the surrounding space.
A sheet of what appears to be musical notation rests beneath the instrument’s body. These lines, though simplified, suggest a connection between the visual representation and the auditory experience associated with music. They introduce an element of symbolic resonance, hinting at themes of harmony, rhythm, and perhaps even the ephemeral nature of artistic creation.
The background is not merely a backdrop but actively participates in the deconstruction of form. It appears as a series of geometric blocks, echoing the fractured planes of the guitar itself. This creates a sense of visual ambiguity; it becomes difficult to discern where one object ends and another begins.
The overall effect is one of intellectual inquiry rather than straightforward depiction. The artist seems less interested in portraying the instrument’s appearance than in exploring its underlying structure and the possibilities of representing reality through multiple viewpoints. Theres a sense of controlled chaos, a deliberate disruption of conventional perspective that invites viewers to actively engage with the artwork and reconstruct their own understanding of the scene. The work suggests an investigation into perception itself – how we see, how we understand, and how we represent the world around us.