Picasso Guitars 1912–1914

"The objects that could stand on a café table, the Spanish guitar, these were the only pleasures allowed," French poet Jean Cocteau wrote, describing the austere subject matter that characterized Bottle and Wineglass and the phase of Picasso's career to which it belongs. The artist executed seemingly endless still life variations using a limited range of objects typical to a European café—most often a bottle of alcohol and a glass. This papier collé includes a rectangular patch of white paper pasted over a stripe of rich black ink, which creates real and illusory depth behind the white highlight and generates a sense of the volume and transparency of a full, round Bottle.