Picasso "The Old Guitarist"
Beckmann "Vaudeville Act"
One could argue that the main focus on both Pablo Picasso's "The Old Guitarist" (1903, oil on panel ) and Max Beckmann's "Vaudeville Act" (1934-37, oil on canvas) is music. These artists illustrate two very different viewpoints towards instrumentation and what effect is has on our lives.
In Beckmann's Vaudeville Act, the viewer's eye is immediately drawn to the white guitar/banjo, held by a girl dressed in bright yellow. The girl is making eye contact with the viewer, suggesting she is one with the instrument. She is surrounded by people, apparently drawn together by the music. The room seems to be brightly lit and an intriguing atmosphere is felt as the viewer wonders what her music is truly communicating to the people she is surrounded by in the painting. She has a slight smile on her face, implying she is playing happy music.
Beckmann's piece is ultimately about this one girl in particular and her relationship with music. One could say she plays the instrument to attract other people because she simply likes attention. Yet one could argue that she plays to attract others because she is lonely. Either way the paintings story might play out; it obviously revolves around the music created by this girl and her guitar.
In Picasso's The Old Guitarist, the viewer is shown a world that starkly contrasts with Beckmann's Vaudeville Act. In this piece there is a man playing a guitar, lying on the ground in dark clothes. He looks cold and lifeless and may not be playing the guitar, but just holding it. His skin is horrible shades of blue and grey- this man certainly looks dead. The environment is just as cold looking- it is dark and empty and the man is completely alone.
The only warmth this painting has at all is the sienna colored guitar in the old mans lap that almost looks radiant set against the colors of its surroundings. If the man is dead, the viewer may assume that the man kept the guitar dear to his heart during his life. It is as if the mans life and energy is literally transferred into the instrument. The brightness of the guitar itself may represent the passion for music the old man once possessed. Since the man is alone and looks lifeless, a negative atmosphere is immediately created. However, the life still shown by the guitar leaves the viewer with a positive message. This mans life ceased with his body, but his passion will live on in the music he created.
Both characters in these paintings display a person relationship with music- an instrument in particular. If the girl in Vaudeville Act was in fact a boy or if the man in The Old Guitarist was a woman- these two paintings might fit together perfectly to tell the story of a specific persons relationship with music. During the persons life they played beautiful music and were famous for it. When they died, the music died as well, but the instrument- the "part" of the person that actually created the music- lives on. Vaudeville Act illustrates the rush of life one feels from a public performance. The Old Guitarist explores an instruments intimate connection with a person. Both of these paintings exemplify the brightness that music brings into our lives. Picasso's and Beckmann's paintings both aim to show us that music is more than what we might initially assume it to be. Music moves past just being noise and becomes an expression of the person creating it. Music almost takes on the role of an actual person in the way it shapes how we think, feel and live. Beckmann's Vaudeville Act teaches us to enjoy music and Picasso's guitarist teaches us to treasure it.
J. Killeen
Nov. '06
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