Abstraction (Guitar and Glass)

Modern Art

1913

Juan Gris
Spanish, 1887–1927

Juan Gris traveled to Paris in 1906 and soon moved to the neighborhood of Montmartre, where he met Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Eventually, Gris joined their artistic circle and participated in the development of Cubism. In Abstraction (Guitar and Glass), he incorporated objects often used in Cubist still-life painting—musical instruments, newspaper, a glass, and a tabletop. Rather than shatter their forms, however, Gris took a more synthetic approach to the composition. The overlapping planes, flattened appearance, and rhythmic patterns of the painting reinforce the two-dimensional nature of the picture’s surface, while the trompe l’oeil effects, deeply saturated colors, strong light-dark contrasts, and precise definition of forms give the still life an extraordinary physical reality.

Status: Currently Off View
Department: Modern Art

Artist: Juan Gris
Title: Abstraction (Guitar and Glass)
Place: Spain (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1913
Medium: Oil on canvas
Inscriptions: Signed and dated on verso, u.l.: "Juan Gris 7-13"
Dimensions: 91.4 × 59.7 cm (36 × 23 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Fund
Reference Number: 1961.36

Lang, L. Maurice, Annuaire des Ventes de tableaux, dessins, aquarelles, pastels, gouaches, miniatures 4 (October 1921–July 1922), p. 109, as La Guitare.
Art Institute, A Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture Lent from American Collections, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute, 1933), p. 83 (cat. 775), as Abstraction, 1913.
Art Institute, A Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture Lent from American Collections, exh. cat. (Chicago: Art Institute, 1934), p. 52 (cat. 346), as Abstraction, 1913.
Jacques Seligmann and Company, Retrospective Loan Exhibition: Juan Gris (1887-1927), exh. cat. (New York: Jacques Seligmann and Company, 1938), n.p. (cat. 1, ill.), as Nature Morte a la Guitare, 1913.
Arts Club of Chicago, Retrospective Exhibition: Juan Gris (1887-1927), exh. cat. (Chicago: Arts Club, 1939), n.p. (cat. 23), as Nature Morte a la Guitare.
Arts Club of Chicago, Variety in Abstraction, exh. cat. (Chicago: Arts Club, 1946), n.p. (cat. 24), as Nature Morte a la Guitar, 1913.
Cincinnati Modern Art Society, Juan Gris, exh. cat. (Cincinnati: Modern Art Society, 1948), n.p. (cat. 7), as Still Life with Guitar, 1913.
San Francisco Museum of Art, Picasso, Gris, Miro: The Spanish Masters of Twentieth Century Painting, exh. cat. (San Francisco: Museum of Art, 1948), p. 77 (cat. 24, ill.), as Still Life with Guitar, 1913.
Aznar, José Camón, “Juan Gris y sus Etapas,” Goya 3 (November–December 1954), p. 158 (fig. 3, ill.), as Guitarra y copa.
Aznar, José Camón, Picasso y el Cubismo (Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1956), p. 58 (fig. 26, ill.), as Guitarra y copa, 1913.
Hanzel Galleries, Chicago, Important Sale at Public Auction: The Renowned Etching Collection formed by the Late William T. Cresmer, The Collection of Paitntings formed by the Late Flora Schofield, also Paintings the Property of Mr. Arthur G. Levy, February 26, 1961, pp. 10 (lot 50), 17 (ill.), as Still Life with Guitar.
“Pay $36,000 for Work of Juan Gris,” Chicago Daily Tribune (February 27, 1961), p. A2, as Still Life with Guitar.
Art Institute, Annual Report 1960–1961 (Chicago: Art Institute, 1961), n.p., cover (ill.), as Abstraction, 1913.
Speyer, A. James, “Twentieth-Century European Paintings and Sculpture,” Apollo 84, 55 (September 1966), p. 225 (pl. 9, ill.), as Abstraction, 1913.
Grung, Sandra, Supplement to Paintings in The Art Institute of Chicago: A Catalogue of the Picture Collection (Chicago: Art Institute, 1971), p. 47, as Abstraction (Still Life with Guitar), 1913.
Gaya Nuño, Juan Antonio, Juan Gris (Barcelona: Ediciones Polígrafa, 1974), pp. 209 (no. 246, ill.), 243, as Guitara y copa, 1913.
Cooper, Douglas, Juan Gris: catalogue raisonné de l’œuvre peint (Paris: Berggruen, 1977), pp. 80 (no. 45), 81 (ill.), as Guitare et Verre, July 1913.
Speyer, A. James and Courtney Graham Donnell, Twentieth-Century European Paintings (Chicago, 1980), p. 45 (no. 2A9), as Abstraction (Still Life with Guitar), 1913.
Wood, James N., Treasures of 19th-and 20th-Century Painting: The Art Institute of Chicago (New York: Abbeville Press, 1993), p. 214 (ill.), as Guitar, Newspaper, and Glass, 1913.
Esteban Leal, Paloma, Juan Gris: Paintings and Drawings 1910–1927, exh. cat. (Madrid: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, 2005), v. 1 [n.p. (cat. 28, ill.), v. 2 [pp. 41 (ill.), 42], as Guitar and Glass.

Chicago, Art Institute, A Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture Lent from American Collections, June 1–November 1, 1933, p. 83 (cat. 775), as Abstraction, 1913.
Chicago, Art Institute, A Century of Progress: Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture Lent from American Collections, June 1–November 1, 1934, p. 52 (cat. 346) as Abstraction, 1913.
New York, Jacques Seligmann and Company, Retrospective Loan Exhibition: Juan Gris (18871927), November 21–December 10, 1938, n.p. (cat. 1, ill.), as Nature Morte a la Guitare, 1913.
Chicago, Arts Club, Retrospective Exhibition: Juan Gris (18871927), January 3–27, 1939, n.p. (cat. 23), as Nature Morte a la Guitare, 1913.
Chicago, Arts Club, Variety in Abstraction, March 5–30, 1946, n.p. (cat. 24), as Nature Morte a la Guitare, 1913.
Cincinnati Modern Art Society (organizers), Juan Gris, n.p. (cat. 7), as Still Life with Guitar, 1913; shown Cincinnati, Art Museum, April 30–May 31, 1948.
San Francisco Museum of Art, Picasso, Gris, Miro: The Spanish Masters of Twentieth Century Painting, September 14–October 17, 1948, p. 77 (cat. 24, ill.), as Still Life with Guitar, 1913; traveled to Portland, Ore., Art Museum, October 26–November 28, 1948.
Madrid, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Juan Gris: Paintings and Drawings
1910–1927, June 22–September 19, 2005, vol. 1, n.p. (cat. 28, ill.); vol. 2, pp. 41 (ill.), 42, as Guitar and Glass.
Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum, The Age of Picasso and Matisse: Modern Masters from the Art Institute of Chicago, Oct. 6, 2013–Feb. 16, 2014, no cat. no.

The artist; Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (1884–1979), Paris, 1913 [letter from Maurice Jardot of Galerie Louise Leiris, Aug. 1976, in curatorial file]; sold, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, 3rd Kahnweiler sequestration sale, July 4, 1922, lot 98, as La Guitare. Flora Schofield (1873-1960), Chicago, by 1927 [Hanzel Galleries 1961]; sold, Hanzel Galleries, Chicago, Feb. 26, 1961, lot 50, to the Art Institute of Chicago.

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