The Basket of Pears 1925

Juan Gris made "The Basket of Pears", an oil on canvas painting, sometime in the 1920s. Gris was a Spanish painter who worked primarily in France, where he became a leading exponent of Cubism. This still life takes as its subject some ordinary domestic objects: a table, a basket, some fruit, and a bowl. But the way these things are represented departs quite radically from the naturalistic tradition that had dominated Western art for centuries. Instead, Gris breaks down his subjects into geometric forms, recomposing them on the canvas in a way that emphasizes their constructed nature. Cubism was a revolutionary artistic movement that challenged conventional ways of seeing and representing the world. In the early twentieth century, artists like Gris and Picasso sought to capture the essence of modern life in an era of rapid technological and social change. To understand art like this, we need to think about the wider culture of the time, about the institutions of art, and the social forces that shaped both the artist and the audience.