When I was in second grade, my art teacher made my class look at Pablo Picasso’s Three Musicians and I remember raising my hand and saying that it was the ugliest painting I had ever seen and it looked like a 5 year old made it. How could it be as famous as she claimed? She ended up yelling at me for being so rude but I didn’t care because I had the whole class laughing and agreeing with me. Anyways 11 years later I have much more appreciation for Picasso’s work and in particular abstraction.
This painting’s style is Synthetic Cubism, which was one of Picasso’s favorite abstract art styles. He was all around good at everything but when Cubism was emerging, he really was at the forefront of the movement along with one of his friends in France, Georges Braque. Modernism in general is all about depicting things in new and alternative perspectives, allowing the viewer to have their own interpretations of the art. Cubism is a really cool example of this because it breaks down simple images like three musicians playing instruments into basic geometric shapes and planes that are all collaged together to provide a more distorted experience while viewing the painting. It’s all about breaking down forms and reconstructing them.
This painting is a fun example because at first glance it’s not so simple to identify the musicians because their bodies are so weird, it’s like a puzzle. The middle figure it actually a self portrait of Picasso because he often put himself in his own paintings wearing that diamond pattern. The colors of his suit are part of the Spanish flag and although he’s not actually a big music fan (listening or playing), he made himself play the guitar to show his Spanish pride. He added a guitar in many of his paintings actually. In this painting Picasso is with two of his friends and there’s also a hidden dog in the back. You can see the dog’s tail underneath Picasso’s chair and follow it towards the left.
My favorite part of this painting is how silly and child like it is. This painting is actually pretty large scaled in person and I was surprised to see that. But if you look close at the instruments you’ll see how tiny the musicians’ hands are. Picasso always said he wanted to look through the eyes of a child because kids make the most creative and best art. He could make complex naturalistic paintings too, but he was always more interested in abstraction and going outside the box
