Art Critique

            I chose to critique "The Old Guitarist". The Old Guitarist is an oil painting by Pablo Picasso created late 1903 – early 1904. It depicts an old, blind, haggard man with threadbare clothing weakly hunched over his guitar, playing in the streets of Barcelona, Spain. It is on display at the art institute of Chicago and is a part of a memorial connection. Piscasso had what he called “the blue period” where he had poor living and a rough time when his dear friend committed suicide.

            In “The Old Guitarist” Picasso used a variety of dark blues. The only thing that wasn’t some shade of blue was the guitar sitting in his lap. The guitar was like a taupe color with a dark brown neck. The man in the painting is light blue with darker blue streaks. He is so skinny, and you can see his bones. The man in the painting looks practically dead.

            My interpretation on this painting is the man in the painting is dead, and since this painting is one of Piscasso’s blue period about the suicide of a dear friend. I think the man in the painting is Piscasso’s deceased friend.

            My judgement of this painting is its very unique and it looks like he put a lot of hard work into it, and painting this could have been a distraction to him from his life and the world. I think he used oil paints to give off a rough texture to relate to his rough life.