Artist: Pablo Picasso

Style: Analytical Cubism

Topic: Music

Date: 1910

The first stage of Picasso's cubism is known as analytical cubism. It began in 1908 and ended in 1912, which for Picasso is quite a long time for a style to last. Picasso's work lost all concept of dimensions, and no great detail had gone into any section of the art, he had taken simplicity to the extreme. In one image you could see many different angles and perspectives, making it difficult, at first glance to depict any image. The colour scheme for this style also made it difficult to see the pictures. It was limited, largely to blacks, browns and dark greens. These colours were used to show the difference between cubism and average art. Some cubist paintings were extremely abstract. In Le Guitariste, painted in 1910, it is very difficult to see any guitarist at all. If you look very carefully, you can just about make out an image of a man, and the slightest suggestion of a guitar. It's nothing like the Old Guitarist of the Blue Period.