by Brean Schell

Created on: April 27, 2009   Last Updated: April 29, 2009

Georges Braque's 'Man With a Guitar' is at once confronting and comforting. The work seems to disallow mere visual perusal, and forces the viewer to feel the implicated movement and organic emotion Braque has worked into his very singular piece. Braque's almost over the top cubist style has shattered the figure beyond any clear, physical recognition, but gives the work a sense of sound and movement that is beautiful and clear, despite the fractures. Few artists have taken the idea of cubism as far as Braque and still maintained a sense of individuality in their figures. The colors, style and orientation of the 'man' seem sensual, almost organic in nature. The earth tones enhancing the humanist, organic nature of the figure, adding to the idea that the subject is merely human, doing what humans do.

The figure is one with his setting, comfortable in his place, and at home among the almost expressionist brushstrokes of the background. Braque seems to have eased his figure out of the background, the technique so cleverly worked that the man flows out from a natural state into what feels like urgent, sensual dance. Even the brushstrokes imply urgency and energy, pulling us into the background an thrusting the figure past us into our world.

The viewers eye is draw quickly down from the top of the subject, past the fractured 'sausage' elements of an art student's physical explorations, down further past a guitar that has been shattered and passed around, down to an almost whole stool.

Central to the image are the base elements of both the man and his guitar, more so, it appears, the latter. The scroll, body and strings of the guitar are clearly discernible, but the only easily identifiable part of the man appears to be a finger, caressing the neck of the instrument.

Having a human figure so broken down, so elementally depicted, should be disturbing, but Braque's work suggests nothing but sensuality and comfort. The earth tones that flow through the figure give weight to the figure being organic, not the usual cubist manufactured figure. That Braque has used exactly the same colors for the figure and the setting meld the work into one single expression of movement and sound.

The entire work suggests movement and sound, to the point we can almost hear the flamenco, and imagine the afternoon dancers. Georges Braque's 'Man With a Guitar' is a clever, comforting exploration of movement in an organic setting, almost disturbing, yet sensual and organic.

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