Family Audio Tour: Still Life with a Mandolin

Room 5

Can you find Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), Still Life with a Mandolin, 1924, in this room?

Listen to the audio

Continue on the tour

• You're almost finished – there's just one artwork left, and it's a sculpture of a man called George Bernard Shaw.
• To find the sculpture, go back out the big, black doors you came in.
• Turn right and walk down the steps to Level 0, where you'll also spot the cafe and shop. Can you spot the big sculpture of a man?
• Or, you can take the lift down to Level 0.
• You can take another look at all the audio tracks and choose one you'd like to listen to next.

Transcript

Íde:

I could look at this painting for hours – and I sometimes do, because when I’m looking after the works of art in the galleries, I’m often in the same room for a l-o-o-ng time!

Eoin:

It looks like a puzzle to me – like when you have to put different shapes into the right holes. 

Íde:

Yes, but the more you look, the more it makes sense. See if you can recognise anything in the picture. What about the blue oval shape on the right?

Eoin:

There’s a hole in the middle and white lines going down at the bottom, like strings. Is it a guitar?

Íde:

Close. It’s a mandolin, like a round guitar. And what about the bottom of the picture, in the corners, where there are two curved white shapes next to blue.

Eoin:

I think they look like table legs, and between them, the long black pattern looks like it could be a tablecloth. So is this a picture of a table with objects on it?

Íde:

Exactly! It’s that we call a still life painting. 

Eoin:

Then the white shape on the left must be a bowl – with grapes inside it – those black dots. And the long curvy shape in the middle must be a bottle. And the squiggly black pattern in the back are maybe plants.

Íde:

See how it all comes together? 

Eoin:

Yes, but why didn’t this artist just paint things like they actually look?

Íde:

Well his name was Pablo Picasso and he invented a new way of painting. Instead of painting things from just one angle, he wanted show things from all different sides at the same time. Like the table: we’re looking across at the legs but look down at the top. Picasso also liked to make shapes and colours stronger than they actually were – like the blue oval shape he used for the mandolin.

Eoin:

Like you said the more you look the more you find. Makes me think about what objects I can put in my own still life.

Íde:

Can you help Eoin? If you had to paint a still life, what objects would you put in it? Tell whoever you’re with.