Juan+Gris


 * Juan Gris** was a Cubist painter whose style gained him fame and friendship among the greats, including Pablo Picasso. His style, though distinctive from his friend Picasso, used Cubist stylistic techniques to yield abstract works of reality-based art. Through Gris's influence, cubism became a language and a particular way of expressing the world like no other technique had before.

=Biography = ==

= = Juan Gris (1887-1927), born Jose Gonzalez, first studied mathematics, engineering and the sciences in school. He got his start in art as a cartoonist for local papers around Paris. Beginning in 1910, he painted full time, emanating the likes of @Pablo Picasso in the Cubist style and showcasing his work in galleries. By 1913, he had developed his own distinctive style and had his first one-man gallery showing a few years afterwards. Composing his pieces the way an architect would design a building, Gris's style gained popularity. "I consider that the architectural element in painting is mathematics, the abstract side; I want to humanize it," he said.

Gris was in tune with and sympathetic to poetic movements of the time, collaborating with Pierre Reverdy, Gertrude Stein and others. He was a friend to Picasso, each influencing the others style and interpretations of Cubism. Gris signed a contract for his paintings in 1920, but soon after his health began to deteriorate. Still very notable in the social scene of the times, Gris caught the attention of Sergei Diaghilev's, who commissioned Gris to design the costumes and set for his Ballet Russes. = =

=Artistic Techniques =

Gris was a major player in the Cubist movement. His still life pieces and portraits exemplified cubist techniques, using fragmentation to cast everyday objects in a whole new light. Cubism sought to do away with the traditional, constrained perspective of art and fashioned a new, more broad visualization to reflect "the complexity of the modern age." This creates an almost poetic interpretation on the canvas. Not only does the artist focus on the subject of his/her work, but also brings in their own memories of the subject to play a part in the final product, leaving the ultimate interpretation up the reader. Gris was considered the third Cubist of the 20th century movement, following Braque and Gris's friend and neighbor, Picasso. =Works =

The works of Gris are many, and include

At the time Juan Gris painted his "Harlequin with Guitar" in 1919, his cubist style was fully-fledged and had began to capture the public's eye. In this particular piece his fragmentation of the ordinary alters would what one would, at the time, consider a typical and easily recognized object and character, a guitar played by a harlequin. Being a theatrical character typically dressed in bright colors the standard image would be of a figure in checkered clothes like a joker, with a painted face and distinguishable manner. Gris clearly yields a n entirely different interpretation. He utilize more muted, falls colors, with the once identifiable figure melting into the background, one with the table, chair and his surroundings. The man's hands though are emphasized, and his guitar has defining lines around it, so that the viewer's eye focuses there first. Gris brings no unnecessary decoration to the painting, rather there's a harmony between the moving parts, as the knotholes on the table appear to be literally sliding off, creating a feeling like the painting is just a small snapshot of the larger whole. The piece overall leaves the impression that Gris painted in a dual nature: both with close, painstaking attention to detail while at the same time allowing the freedom that comes with painting a style that appears to come from memory. Though the scenes and colors overlap, they still have a realistic feel to them, true to the experience.



**Artistic Influences**

Eager to leave behind the rural country and his isolated life in Madrid, Gris moved to Paris at age nineteen. He gained contact with and befriended fellow painter Pablo Picasso early on, along with Picasso's poet friends Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob and André Salmon. After spending time with Picasso in the town of Ceret (which now houses the Museum of Modern Art), Gris unveiled his first art exhibition. It wasn't long before Gris's work was on display at //Section d'Or//, an influential exhibit that housed the painting s of Marcoussis, Gleizes and others - an offshoot of the Cubist technique pioneered by Picasso and Braque.

Though he learned from Picasso, they were both equally relevant in the cubist movement, along with Georges Braque. Braque and Picasso were the inventors of the collage, but Gris also utilized it in his work. Gertrude Stein and Leonce Rosenberg both admired Gris' work.





The pictures above are examples of works by Gris, Picasso, and Braque, respectively. Each work demonstrates the distinct Cubist style, but each artist takes a slightly different approach to the method. Gris's work clearly shows a man in a chair. They style of clothing and setting are, for the most part, fairly discernible. He uses a very basic and somewhat muted colour scheme, with sharp lines and corners, and very few rounded lines. Picasso also portrays a human figure, but his character is not as obviously human as Gris'. Picasso uses bright, but mostly primary colours, and the setting and subject of his painting are less clear, allowing for a more indeterminate interpretation of the painting. Braque's painting provides a sharp contrast in colour to both Gris' and Picasso's paintings by using only earth tones. The painting contains a mix of round and straight lines. All three paintings seem to have a central subject, and almost fade out toward the edges of the pieces.



Pictured here is Gris's piece "The Open Window" which William Carlos Williams reflected on in detail in his poem VIII of "Spring and All." Williams was one of Gris's great admirers and praised his expertise at "using the forms common to experience so as not to frighten the onlooker away but to invite him." He even touted his work as that which "points forward to what will prove the greatest painting yet produced."

Additional connections with, as mentioned above: Gertrude Stein, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Henry Matisse and Amedeo Modigliani.

=**External Links** =

Juan Gris website with full [|Biography] and[| Juan Gris Complete Works] []

Website with detailed description of Cubism and its most important figures: [| cubism and gris]

[|paintings]

[|Critique of Gris's work from the Metropolitan Museum of Art]

media type="youtube" key="Tpl7k84-dm4" height="315" width="420"

=**References** =

 Images are used in accordance with fair use practices.If you hold copyright to an image, and do not agree that its use accords with fair use practices,please contact the wiki's creator and organizer.