Portrait of Juan Gris 1963

Patrick Caulfield made this ‘Portrait of Juan Gris’ with paint on canvas. There's something so cool about the way Caulfield approaches flatness here, almost like he's screen-printing, but it's paint, you know? The yellow background is just this non-space and the black lines are like a deconstructed cubist painting. I guess that makes sense, given the title! Look at the rendering of Juan Gris's suit, it’s kind of stiff. Then you notice the subtle shifts in tone, especially around the collar, which adds a weird volume, like an inflated balloon. It's as if Caulfield’s painting is gently mocking the idea of ‘portraiture’ itself, and also ‘Cubism’. I love that! Caulfield reminds me a little bit of David Hockney, both playing with representation, but with very different attitudes and outcomes. This piece has such clarity of line and pop sensibility. To me it says that art is always in conversation with art, in ways that are often funny, smart, and totally unexpected.