ment and
Figures at the Seashore. 1931
pression.
Figures au bord de
the transformation of conventional techniques and modes of exThe assemblages Picasso did in spring 1926. which were published that summer in La Revolution surrealiste, point up the differences of creative method nicely. The assemblages consist of just a few, simple, everyday things. Scraps of linen
together to
make almost
Guitar
In
(p.
tulle, nails, string,
what looks
of a "picture".
mer
Paris.
cm
Musee Picasso
buttons and newspaper are put
abstract images.
119 top), for instance. Picasso has arranged a piece of sack-
of newspaper, two long nails and some string
cloth, a scrap
that
and
la
Oil on canvas. 130 x 195
like a
By
representational.
random
such a
way
collection of objects takes on the appearance
referring to the
The cut-out
in
title
we
circle in the
can perceive
this
work
as being
middle of the cloth echoes the
hole in a guitar's soundboard, and the two nails loosely suggest the strings.
The yellowed newspaper denotes the side and bottom of the instrument, and the string must presumably represent the (oddly angled) neck. The image
as such is
wholly non-naturalistic, and the form contrasts with
of an actual guitar. But lish the
concept of a
in its details there are
guitar.
Picasso
is
enough
that
similarities to estab-
continuing the line of Synthetic Cub-
ism here, seeing the picture as a system of signs, the arbitrary nature of
which leaves the imagination leeway for untrammelled invention. The possibility of recognition is anchored in concepts and definitions, and happens entirely
in the intellect.
Surrealism does exactly the opposite.
primarily operates with a conceptual system, but alike
depend on the
its
It
too
techniques and aims
irrational. 127