The guitar 1916

This cubist guitar, by Pablo Picasso, is a still life of geometric forms, probably painted in oil. I can imagine Picasso building up layer after layer, shifting shapes and forms, intuitively searching for the elusive, essential form of the instrument. There are warm reds and dark blacks, all contained within the muted olive background. What strikes me is how these angular forms still capture the essence of something curvaceous. Those vertical stripes! The guitar strings—it’s almost like he’s daring us to pluck them, to make some music out of pure paint. In his own way, Picasso was strumming a new chord, completely re-tuning how we perceive space and form. He's in conversation with Braque, with Cézanne, and with every artist who ever tried to capture the world, not as it is, but as it feels, as it vibrates. It's about an ongoing exchange of ideas. What will we create in response?