Harlequin 1917

Juan Gris made this Harlequin sculpture. It sits there, looking like a figure built from architectural blocks, doesn't it? The colours Gris uses are muted, like the memory of a dream, or maybe a stage set after the actors have left. The surface is rugged, each plane asserting its presence. Take a look at the way the head is constructed - like a series of stacked boxes, each with its own tilt and angle. And how the light catches the edges, revealing the texture of the material, almost like it has been cast from concrete. It reminds me a bit of Picasso, his contemporary, who was always trying to pull apart the world and put it back together again in new and exciting ways. In art, like life, there's always more than one way to see things!