Art Analysis Essay

For my art analysis paper, I decided to select a work of art that can be found on page 465 in the textbook, the full title of the oil on canvas piece is called, The Old Guitarist, by the artist Pablo Picasso. Picasso’s artistic phrase of the piece is during the years 1901-1904, during his Blue Period, which began after a close friend of Picasso committed suicide in Paris. Throughout those years Picasso, began painting many canvases portraying the miseries of the poor, the ill, and those cast out from society. The piece, The Old Guitarist, gives viewers a sense of representation of Picasso’s feelings and mood during his Blue Period.
Page 465, Pablo Picasso, The Old Guitarist.
• Line: A line is a continuous dot drawn. Types of lines drawn that
Picasso use of texture is not necessarily presented in this piece.
• Unity and Variety: The wholeness and diversity of elements of an artwork. Picasso’s use of unity was to create the sense of sadness, gloominess, and loneliness, the mood of the painting equally collaborates with the shades, colors, and style of the entire piece. Picasso’s use of variety is not used much since the main subject is the man and the guitar.
• Balance: An equal distribution of elements in an art piece. Picasso’s use is well balanced due to the same use of colors throughout the painting, giving it a sense of loneliness.
• Emphasis and Subordination: The importance of a specific area/subject in an art piece. Picasso emphasizes the old “blue” man strumming the guitar as the subject of the art piece. As well as subordinating the man’s act and body language in a lower class of poverty due to his surroundings/environment in the piece.
• Directional Forces: Paths of objects for the eye to follow. Picasso does not use directional forces, since the man sitting with his guitar is the only focus of the piece.
• Contrast: A difference of values of an object. Picasso use of colors are used evenly, causing the contrast to be