"Guitar on a Table," Juan Gris, 1915.

I've talked about Juan Gris, my favorite Cubist, before, so I won't go into his story again. But I love his clean lines and his ability to be Cubist while still making his objects discernable.

Here he's got a guitar (a frequent motif in his work) against sheet music on a tabletop...but the guitar has only five strings, and the music is missing a line from the staff. He's letting us know what they are without being a slave to naturalism, which I respect.

Gris was a champion of "Crystal Cubism" and did many paintings I admire...and I usually don't like Cubism! There's just something about his firm vision and ability to render an object while still toying with perspective that I really like.

From the Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo, The Netherlands.

#Art #JuanGris #MyFavoriteCubist #Cubism #CrystalCubism #Modernism

"Guitar in Front of the Sea," Juan Gris, 1925.

As I've said before, I don't care much for Cubism, except for Juan Gris' style.

Spaniard Gris (1887-1927) started off as an illustrator and cartoonist, but moved to Paris and plunged himself into the avant-garde art world. He became a passionate Cubist, and in my view the best, as he practiced "Crystal Cubism" where he broke down things to their component shapes, but kept them still recognizable. His remarkably clean lines appeal to me.

The guitar here is two intersecting triangles with a rectangle thrust in it...the newspaper is two trapezoids together...the sea is some white lines on blue with a plain white triangle indicating a sailboat. We also have sheet music, a pear, and what may be the Ace of Diamonds....and while they're all distinctly Cubist, you still easily recognize them.

Poor health meant he died young and never moved to another style. As some critics have said, he's the purest Cubist of the lot.

From the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid.

#Art #JuanGris #Cubism #StillLife #CrystalCubism #Modernism #MyFavoriteCubist

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"Coffee Grinder and Glass," Juan Gris, 1915.

Spanish-born Gris (1887-1927), my favorite Cubist, did all his major work in Paris, where he immersed himself completely in the avant-garde art scene.

He actually started as a cartoonist in Madrid before casting that aside and taking off for France. It almost makes sense for him, a satirist with a jaded eye for society and humanity, to fling himself into a new art movement.

Here we have a work from when he was on the verge of his "Crystal Cubism" period, featuring sharp angles and a blurring not only of objects and surface, but also of subject and background. The skewed perspective of the glass, newspaper, and coffee grinder are expected, but it takes a moment to realize that repeated pattern to the left is a venetian blind, with the skewed perspective and angles that are classical Cubist.

Other Cubists tend to annoy me, I have to admit, but I love Gris' clean lines and willingness to engage with the viewer rather than hold them at a distance.

From the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO.

#Art #Cubism #JuanGris #Coffee #Blinds

The Guitar in Art

1) Jessie with Guitar, Thomas Hart Benton, 1957
2) Woman with Guitar, Juan Gris, 1926
3) The Old Guitarist, Picasso, 1903
4) Charlotte Davis Wylie, Thomas Cantwell Healy, 1853

#guitar #art #artist #artists #thomashartbenton #juangris #picasso #thomascantwellhealy #pablopicasso #kunst #artworld