1920 Guitare et partition sur un guВridon Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) Period of creation: 1919-1930

The composition presents a still life arrangement centered around a guitar and sheet music, rendered in a fragmented, geometric style. The artist has deconstructed the objects, presenting them not as they appear from a single viewpoint but as a collection of flattened planes and intersecting lines. A warm palette dominates – ochres, browns, yellows, and russets – though punctuated by darker tones of black and grey that contribute to the sense of angularity and visual disruption.
The guitar itself is not depicted realistically; its form is broken down into overlapping shapes, suggesting multiple perspectives simultaneously. The neck extends upward, terminating in a series of dots representing frets, while the body appears as an assemblage of curved and angled surfaces. A sheet of music rests against the instrument’s body, also fragmented and abstracted. Musical notation is visible but rendered with similar geometric distortion, blurring the distinction between object and representation.
The background is similarly treated – a series of large, rectangular planes that seem to both contain and dissect the objects within. The lack of traditional perspective creates a sense of spatial ambiguity; depth is not conveyed through linear recession but rather through shifts in color and plane orientation.
Subtleties emerge upon closer inspection. A hint of a hand appears at the lower left corner, suggesting an implied presence – a musician or observer – though this figure remains incomplete and integrated into the overall geometric structure. The limited tonal range and restricted palette contribute to a mood that is both melancholic and introspective.
The work seems less concerned with depicting the guitar and music literally than it is with exploring the formal possibilities of representing them through abstraction. It suggests an interest in dismantling conventional modes of perception, challenging the viewer to reconstruct meaning from fragmented visual information. The overall effect is one of controlled chaos – a deliberate disruption of order that invites contemplation on the nature of representation itself.