The Old Guitarist and Being Dead

8:00 AM


Pablo Picasso, The Old Guitarist, 1903
"They are the dark co-ordinates of one straight line. Grief is death eroticized. And sex is only shuffling off this mortal coil before its time to plummet to the post-coital afterlife." - Jim Crace, Being Dead  

White, expressionless, and poisoned by life, the old man has nothing left to give and has nearly lost it all. Much like a last dying word, the old guitarist strums his last note, echoing followed by a still silence. The Blue period of Pablo Picasso brought forth The Old Guitarist as a testimony to his friends abrupt death. The lonely innocent figure remains, his lifeless body purging any remaining breath.

The deep blues and greens depict a somber mood, a loss of warmth and humanity, stone cold silence awaits. The decay of the pale fragile body are evident in the exposure of his bare corpse. With tattered and torn clothing, his head slouched, unable to resist the relentless sudden loss of  animation. Progressing into the darkness the paintings vertical lines separate life and death, while his body slowly rots, leaving behind nothing more that an unmourned soul.

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