Gris, Juan
Timeline: Picasso and Cubism
Juan Gris was the Third Musketeer of Cubism, and actually pushed Cubism further to its logical conclusion until his ultimely death in 1927 at the age of 39. His pictures are a joy to look at!
The Spanish artist Juan Gris, b. Mar. 13, 1887, d. May 11, 1927, was, with Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, one of the first and greatest exponents of the cubist idiom in painting.
Portrait of Picasso
1912; Oil on canvas, 93.4 x 74.3 cm;
Collection of Mrs. and Mrs. Leigh Block, Art Institute of Chicago (DC 13)
Originally named Jose Victoriano Gonzalez, he adopted the pseudonym by which he is known after moving (1906) to Paris, where he lived as Picasso's friend and neighbor. Between 1907 and 1912 he watched closely the development of the cubist style and in 1912 exhibited his Homage to Picasso (collection of Mrs. and Mrs. Leigh Block, Chicago), which established his reputation as a painter of the first rank. He worked closely with Picasso and Braque until the outbreak of World War I, adapting what had been their intuitively generated innovations to his own methodical temperament.
In the 1920s, Gris designed costumes and scenery for Serge DIAGHILEV's Ballets Russes. He also completed some of the boldest and most mature statements of his cubist style, with landscape-still lifes that compress interiors and exteriors into synthetic cubist compositions, such as Le Canigou (1921; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, N.Y.), and figure paintings, especially the fine series of clowns that includes Two Pierrots (1922; collection of Mr. and Mrs. Harold Hecht, Beverly Hills, Calif.).
Man in the Cafe
1912; Oil on canvas, 128.2 x 88 cm;
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Le Lavabo
1912; Oil on canvas with paper and mirror collage, 51" X 35";
Collection Vicomtesse de Noailles, Paris
Landscape with Houses at Ceret
1913; Oil on canvas, 100 x 65 cm;
Galeria Theo, Madrid (DC56)
Landscape at Ceret
1913; Oil on canvas, 92 x 60 cm;
Moderna Museet, Stockholm
The Man at the Café
1914;
Oil and papier colle pasted on canvas, 99 x 72 cm;
Acquavella Galleries, Inc., New York (DC 76)
Still Life before an Open Window: Place Ravignan
1915; Oil on canvas, 116 x 89 cm;
Philadelphia Museum of Art (DC 131)
Photographs by Mark Harden.
The Mountain "Le Canigou"