Cherries 

Curator: Here we have a rather lovely still life from Auguste Herbin. Though untitled and undated, its geometric rendering certainly places it within the Cubist explorations of the early 20th century. It's rendered in oil paint, with cherries overflowing from baskets and dishes before a stylized landscape. Editor: It feels like a strange mashup, doesn’t it? All this careful geometry in the foreground, with the countryside feeling more like a backdrop. Are those buildings supposed to be real places? I get a sense of the theatrical—almost as if everything is staged. Curator: Well, you know, staging was pretty key in Cubist works, challenging our notions of perception and space. Herbin wasn't simply replicating what he saw. Instead, he reconstructed reality on canvas through simplified forms, emphasizing structure and design. Think about how the planes of color define the landscape, rather than traditional shading and perspective. Editor: Sure, but that hard-edged stylization creates this slightly alienating effect. It highlights the artificiality of the whole thing. Makes you think about how we look at pictures in the first place, instead of just "seeing" cherries and mountains. Curator: That's exactly it! Herbin aimed to disrupt habitual viewing patterns, pushing viewers to actively engage with the painting's underlying structure and how meaning is created through visual cues. It's less about "cherries" and more about the act of perceiving "cherries." Editor: Still, it's kind of unnerving to look at a world divided into distinct, flat color fields. And that odd lighting–it’s bright but with no apparent source. Feels less like a happy afternoon and more like an intellectual puzzle, one filled with delectable snacks but forbidding the act of actually eating. Curator: I appreciate your read. Herbin would eventually move toward complete abstraction. This is, in some ways, an interesting transitional piece—offering both recognizable subject matter, yet pulling it apart at the seams. It leaves one considering the boundary between the familiar and the completely deconstructed. Editor: Right, deconstructed cherries. Gives you something to chew on, beyond the taste. Curator: Precisely. And so the fruit becomes a vehicle to a novel pictorial experience, pushing beyond mere representation into the realm of constructed reality. A pretty delicious concept to explore!