Guitar

Unidentified, Guitar, ca. 1920s-1930s, painted wood and plywood, brass chrome, iron, lead, celluloid, metal wire, and photograph, 34 ³⁄₄ x 10 ⁷⁄₈ x 4 ¹⁄₄ in. (88.3 x 27.6 x 10.8 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson, 1986.65.300

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Artwork Details

Title: Guitar
Artist: Unidentified
Date: ca. 1920s-1930s
Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum
/
Luce Foundation Center
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3rd Floor
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25A
Dimensions: 34 ³⁄₄ x 10 ⁷⁄₈ x 4 ¹⁄₄ in. (88.3 x 27.6 x 10.8 cm.)
Credit Line: Gift of Herbert Waide Hemphill, Jr. and museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson
Mediums: lead
plywood
iron
brass
Mediums Description: painted wood and plywood, brass chrome, iron, lead, celluloid, metal wire, and photograph
Classifications: Sculpture
Subjects: Object — musical instrument — guitar
Object Number: 1986.65.300
Linked Open Data: https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1986.65.300

Artwork Description

The unknown artist most likely intended this to be a functioning guitar, but the heavy wood body would have made it difficult to play. Evidence that the artist removed and reattached the frets on the fingerboard suggests that he or she was not an experienced guitar maker. The three heart-shaped sound holes (instead of the usual singular hole in the middle of the body) also mark a departure from traditional guitars. Folk dulcimers (hourglass-shaped stringed instruments played by plucking with the fingers), which were popular from 1920 to1940, sometimes had heart-shaped sound holes and may have inspired the artist to incorporate the shape into this instrument. The lower section on the back of Guitar opens to reveal a compartmented chamber, possibly meant to store strings or picks. Above that, a plastic-covered window displays a black-and-white photograph of an unidentified man standing in front of the George Washington Bridge in New York City.