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.

Guitar and Wine Glass, Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France), Cut-and-pasted newspaper, printed sheet music, laid and wove papers, oil, and charcoal on printed wallpaper mounted on paperboard

This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.

Open Access

As part of the Met's Open Access policy, you can freely copy, modify and distribute this image, even for commercial purposes.

API

Public domain data for this object can also be accessed using the Met's Open Access API.