Three Lamps 1911

Juan Gris, a master of Cubism, made Three Lamps using watercolor on paper. I can imagine him, carefully placing each lamp, then squinting, analyzing their forms, trying to reduce them to geometric shapes, while also allowing their inherent lamp-ness to shine through. Look closely at the facets of color – warm yellows and cool blues – as he slowly builds up the image. This isn’t just about seeing; it’s about thinking, feeling, and then finding a way to coax the painting into being. Notice how the light seems to shimmer. The shapes don't quite line up. Maybe that was Gris, wrestling with how to show more than one view at once. Like Cézanne before him, Gris took the stuff of the everyday – lamps – and transformed them into a meditation on seeing and knowing. Painting, for him, was a way to understand the world, and maybe even to remake it.