The Musician 1914

Louis Marcoussis made this painting of a musician in 1919, using oil on canvas to fracture our sense of reality. The artist uses a muted palette of grays, blues, and browns, creating a melancholic mood. What’s interesting is how Marcoussis allows the geometry to break down the figure, but still suggests depth and volume, like a collapsed stage set. The surfaces feel flat, yet the layering of shapes creates a spatial complexity. Look at the way he renders the sheet music, how it seems to float above the instrument. You can almost hear the discordant notes. This reminds me of some of Picasso’s early cubist works, but with a colder, more detached sensibility. Ultimately, this painting celebrates ambiguity. It’s about seeing and feeling the world in multiple dimensions, not just accepting a single point of view.