Globe and Banjo 1930

Jean Metzinger made this painting, "Globe and Banjo," with oil on canvas. Look at the colours! They're so flat and bold and they vibrate against each other, like that zingy yellow next to the almost turquoise pears. It's a process of arranging shapes and colours, right? I love how the textures are smooth but you can still see the brushstrokes, little hints of the hand. The globe in the center feels like a model of the world, but it's also just a blue shape. And beside it, the banjo with its dark strings, makes me think of music and math. There's a face in the upper right with its weird steps, almost like a building! The openness and ambiguity makes it exciting. You can see Metzinger playing with the ideas that Picasso and Braque were pushing, but he's definitely doing his own thing. It reminds me of the playful puzzles of Stuart Davis, who took everyday objects and turned them into something totally new.