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Abstraction (Guitar and Glass)

Geometric forms fragment a vertical composition containing a woodgrain table with newspapers, a guitar, and a stemmed wine glass. These objects are vividly painted within a V-shaped fragment at center. Muted, shadowlike versions of the objects appear outside it. The outline of the guitar is repeated in the V in brown, green, blue, and black alongside a fragment of brown floral wallpaper.

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  • Geometric forms fragment a vertical composition containing a woodgrain table with newspapers, a guitar, and a stemmed wine glass. These objects are vividly painted within a V-shaped fragment at center. Muted, shadowlike versions of the objects appear outside it. The outline of the guitar is repeated in the V in brown, green, blue, and black alongside a fragment of brown floral wallpaper.

Date:

1913

Artist:

Juan Gris
Spanish, 1887–1927

About this artwork

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

On View, Gallery 391

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

Extended information about this artwork

Object information is a work in progress and may be updated as new research findings emerge. To help improve this record, please email . Information about image downloads and licensing is available here.

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