Table by a window 1917

Jean Metzinger created "Table by a Window" using oil on canvas and it's like he's handing you the fragmented pieces of a still life puzzle. The way he builds up the surface is interesting. It's not about hiding the brushstrokes, but letting them be, almost like stacked planes, shifting colors bumping into each other. There's a thickness to some of the paint application, a definite materiality, especially in that red vase, feels both solid and fractured at the same time. Look at the edge of the table, how it butts up against the patterning of the rug. It's a push and pull, a kind of visual vibration that keeps your eye moving. It's like he's saying that art doesn't need to be a window onto the world, it can be a world of its own making. Metzinger here is doing something similar to what Braque was doing at the time, they're both referencing Cezanne, but with a slightly different flavor. Neither of them is looking for a fixed truth, instead embracing a sense of possibility, ambiguity, and change.