Girl with an Accordion: Formal Analysis
Painted by Japanese-American artist Yasuo Kuniyoshi, Girl with an Accordion is a painting categorized under Modern and Contemporary Art and is currently on display at the Portland Art Museum. The work, as its name would suggest, features a girl sitting on a chair and inclining on an accordion. Her left hand is gently supporting her head while her right seems to sink in the bellows of the accordion. Her gaze is fixed on the ground in what seems like a nostalgic manner with her eyes slightly shifting to her right. The painting looks like it is in an excellent condition and seems to have maintained its original use of colors well. This analysis attempts to show its readers how the artist’s complementary use of shapes, colors, and composition mirrors the workings of the natural world, the yin and the yang, and where the audience falls in the painting.
At first glance, the painting invites its onlookers to fix their gaze on the peach colored turtleneck the subject is wearing which juxtaposes nicely with the dull blue-hued background. On a closer inspection, there is an interplay of colors within the painting with the green part of the accordion contrasting nicely with its brown grille, the brown of the chair with the blue background, and the whites of her fingers and face with her clothing. The artist seems to make use of these mix of warm and cool tones to depict two sides the very same painting, in this case the zealous sound of the accordion coupled with the joy that derives from playing it to the melancholic state the girl seems to be in.
When we zero in on the face of the girl, particularly on the hair strands on her forehead, we observe meticulous ink strokes which give the impression that the girl is sweating. This can also be seen in the darker shade of peach-colored paint used on both of her armpits. The girl seems to have been playing the accordion for a while until she decided to stop and ruminate, giving the impression of a vivacious life that has come to an abrupt halt. Even though it is unclear as to why the painter chose to use a significantly different color for their subject’s hands as compared to her face, the choice of color on her face seems to emit a dejected facial expression that is almost contagious. It is hard for the audience to look at the girl’s face without unconsciously imitating her facial expression in a way. In order to understand the state the girl is in, we must put ourselves in her shoes or better yet, be the girl. The use of color observed on the surrounding area of her head is also significantly lighter and extends all the way to the left side of the painting giving the impression that the pigment is emanating from the girl’s head and onto the external world. It allows the onlooker to linger on the that very spot for a while, the spot where the girl’s fingers effortlessly merge with the outside world. In this case, there doesn’t seem to be a distinction between the girl and the objects surrounding her.
The painting overall takes the shape of a triangle which gives the painting a sense of stability. The girl’s face, which is oval, sits on a trapezoid which includes her torso and her slightly bent right arm. The somewhat rectangular accordion is also nicely framed with the wooden flood underneath which seems to meet it halfway. One thing that stands out from the painting shape-wise is the fact that the accordion doesn’t quite have a definite shape. It is malleable. With the girl’s finger gently sinking into the bellows of the accordion, the shape and the possibly faint sound of the accordion with every stroke is left for the imagination of the audience. Moreover, the artist seems to make use of redundant use of features in the painting. The girl’s slanted eyes seem to reproduce themselves on the apex of the chair she is sitting on in what seems like a bird of some sort, perhaps an ostrich, whose neck extends all the way down to the ground. These are also repeated on the fingers on her left hand and the folds of her lower garment. These shapes seem to create a ripple effect of some sort where one affects the other where, in this case, they all seem to be falling into a pit of despair. The accordion in this setting not only offers a physical support, but also a metaphoric one as something the girl might have relied on for stability.
The painting tends to practice seemingly thick strokes along the accordion which might be indicative of movement. Soft hazy strokes are used on her right hand in which her last two fingers seamlessly merge with the part of the accordion she is touching. Lines are pronounced on her arms and forearms, giving them a toned appearance, and an arm of a person who has played the accordion for years. On the top right corner of the painting, the strokes to make a change of direction as one progresses toward the left (from horizontal to vertical), making it look more turbulent and rushed. The texture of the painting overall is course, with an exception of areas such as her right hands. The more one stares at the painting, the more it gives the impression that the very existence of the girl is confined to the vast stretch of canvas in front of us and makes it hard to imagine the moments preceding or succeeding it.
The girl’s torso acts as a pivotal point for an equilibrium when it comes to space. There seems to be a nice balance of negative and positive space in the painting. If one squints their eyes a little however, the way the girl has positioned her head downwards skews this idea of equilibrium by emphasizing on the positive spaces. The somewhat comical depiction of the bird that mirrors the girl’s face and use of subtle fur-like strokes on the chair itself paints an image of the remnants of past success and the destructive self-criticism that follows. The use of earthy tones alongside cool ones, morphing and contrasting shapes, and comparable space usage might all be suggestive of the duality of highs and lows, success and failure, and harmony and discord. They accentuate each other, and without the other, one would not be as significant.
