Still Life 1914

Juan Gris made this "Still Life" with, I'm guessing, oil on canvas; it's hanging out here at the Smith College Museum of Art. Look at how he builds up the image with these sharp, geometric forms. It’s like he’s thinking through the process of painting, bit by bit. He’s all about muted tones—ochre, grey, bits of brown. The texture is smooth, no heavy impasto here, more of a subtle layering. I am obsessed with the newspaper clipping in the center, with the bold ‘LE JOUR’ jumping out, juxtaposed against the more delicate rendering of the objects around it. It’s like he's playing with collage, but all in paint. I love that tension between the flat planes and the illusion of depth. You know, it reminds me a bit of Braque, that back and forth between flatness and space. These guys are always having a conversation, right? I just love how Gris embraces the messiness and the ambiguity. It's like he's saying, "Here's a world, but it's up to you to make sense of it."