Curator, Anne Umland: We’re looking at a sculpture by Pablo Picasso. It’s titled Guitar.
My first reaction is that it is both like and unlike any guitar I’ve ever seen before. And I’m wondering, for those of you who are looking at it with me, if you’ve ever played a guitar or maybe seen a guitar, you probably remember the bodies are made of wood, whereas this one is made of metal.
Things that are similar are the curve on the left-hand side, that kind of backward B shape, or the neck of the guitar, the long vertical piece that juts up above with metal strings, and that circular shape at the center, the sound hole, is just this piece of ordinary pipe.
If I have to imagine a sound coming out of that guitar, it would be funny metal sounds like clang and zang, so not a song. But I’d be so curious, can you imagine playing that guitar to make a song and what it would sound like?