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A total of 65 works by Spanish painter Pablo Picasso depicting guitars are featured in the new exhibition that opened over the weekend at New York’s Museum of Modern Art, or MoMA.
The exhibition “Picasso: Guitars 1912-1914,” running from Feb.13 to June 6, focuses on a period in the artistic life of Picasso (1881-1973) that is enclosed between two guitar sculptures, the first made of cardboard, paper, wire and string in 1912, and the second made from sheet metal in 1914.
“This is the first exhibition that observes in depth these two guitar constructions and puts them in the context of a period of great experimentation by the artist,” show organizer Anne Umland told Efe.
Among the closely related creations are collages, sketches, paintings and sculptures, as well as small-format photographs that Picasso took himself in his studio and that record the ephemeral constructions that Picasso was making there.
The exhibition, which can only be seen at the MoMA, explores two years during which the Spanish artist employed artisanal techniques to recreate objects often seen in his still lifes but using readymade and found objects.
Picasso read the Parisian newspapers Le Journal and Excelsior, printed on cheap paper that quickly darkened, and used them in his collages along with wallpaper printed with plant designs and the sheet music of “Sonnet,” a popular song in the French capital at the beginning of the 20th century.
The artist also mixed sand in his paint to create reliefs and textures, which he might use for either a small detail or the entire work.
He also imitated the techniques of many artisans who painted surfaces to look like wood or marble, and in so doing Picasso was not only referencing the real materials but also that particular type of imitative handcrafting, the experts said.
The works, which Picasso created in the years before the First World War, belong to 35 public and private collections around the world, including the one at the MoMA.