The Smoker II 1913

Juan Gris made "The Smoker II" with graphite and crayon, and what strikes me is how it's all about process, about building up form from these carefully considered lines and planes. The textures Gris coaxes out of these materials are really something. The graphite work has this lovely, soft, almost furry quality, while the crayon adds a touch of warmth and depth. Look at the way he's rendered the smoker's hand, how these geometric shapes somehow coalesce into something so human, so expressive. Then there's the smoke itself, rendered as these wispy, almost ethereal lines that seem to float off the page. It's like Gris is trying to capture not just the appearance of the smoker, but the very essence of the act of smoking. Gris reminds me a little of Cezanne, in the way he's breaking down form into its constituent parts, then reassembling it in a new and unexpected way. And, like Cezanne, he reminds us that art is less about capturing reality than it is about creating a new one.