Guitar and Wine Glass
Pablo Picasso Spanish
Not on view
The abstracted trellis pattern of this wallpaper, which Picasso also pasted into his first papier collés, recalls the network of straps in letter-rack compositions, one of its joints acting as the hook for the guitar. Like the letter-rack painters, Picasso teases the viewer to make sense of the combination of disparate elements, including a piece of his hand-painted wood-grain, his drawing of a wineglass, and snippets from a song sheet and Le Journal. The viewer must become “LE JOU[EUR]” (the player). Many collages by Picasso include news clippings about the Balkan Wars, but here he omitted reference to that specific war from the headline. “LA BATAILLE S’EST ENGAGE[É]” (The battle has begun) has been interpreted as a private allusion to his creative rivalry with Braque.
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