#61 - Juan Gris ~ Jar, Bottle and Glass ~ 1911
#61 - Biographical Sketch of Juan Gris
José Victoriano González-Pérez (1887-1927), better known as Juan Gris, was a Spanish painter
and sculptor who lived and worked in France most of his life. His works, which are closely connected
to the emergence of an innovative artistic genre—Cubism—are among the movement's most
distinctive. Cubism is a style of painting and sculpture developed in the early 20th century,
characterized chiefly by an emphasis on formal structure, the reduction of natural forms to their
geometrical equivalents, and the organization of the planes of a represented object independently of
representational requirements.
Born in Madrid, Gris studied mechanical drawing at the Escuela de Artes y Manufacturas in
Madrid from 1902 to 1904, during which time he contributed drawings to local periodicals. From
1904 to 1905 he studied painting with the academic artist José Maria Carbonero. It was probably in
1905 that José González adopted the more distinctive pseudonym Juan Gris.
In 1906 he moved to Paris and became friends with Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, Fernand
Léger, and in 1915 he was painted by his friend, Amedeo Modigliani. In Paris, Gris followed the lead
of another friend and fellow countryman, Pablo Picasso. Although he submitted darkly humorous
illustrations to journals, Gris began to paint seriously in 1910, and by 1912 he had developed a
personal Cubist style. His portrait of Picasso in 1912 is a significant early Cubist painting done by a
painter other than Picasso or Braque. Although Gris regarded Picasso as a teacher, Gertrude Stein
wrote in The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas that "Juan Gris was the only person whom Picasso
wished away".
At first Gris painted in the analytic style of Cubism, but after 1913 he began his conversion to
synthetic Cubism, of which he became a steadfast interpreter, with extensive use of papier collé or,
collage. Unlike Picasso and Braque, whose Cubist works were monochromatic, Gris painted with
bright harmonious colors in daring, novel combinations in the manner of his friend Matisse. Gris
exhibited with the painters of the Puteaux Group in 1912. His preference for clarity and order
influenced the Purist style and made Gris an important exemplar of the post-war "return to order"
movement.
Juan Gris was a quietist, whose life was ostensibly marked by few major incidents. Though not
the inventor of Cubism, he was one of its most able practitioners and evolved a very personal variety
of it, combining elements which he had learned from Braque and Picasso with others which were his
own personal invention. Typical of his approach was his remark about Cezanne, the universally
acknowledged father of Cubism: 'Cezanne made a cylinder out of a bottle. I make a bottle out of a
cylinder.'
Gris articulated most of his aesthetic theories during 1924 and 1925. He delivered his definitive
lecture, Des possibilités de la peinture, at the Sorbonne in 1924. After October 1925, Gris was
frequently ill with bouts of uremia and cardiac problems. He died of renal failure in Paris on May 11,
1927, at the age of 40, leaving a wife, Josette, and a son, Georges.
#61 - Additional Works by Juan Gris
Portrait of Pablo Picasso 1912
The Bull Fighter
Violin And Checkerboard
The Bottle of Anis del Mono
Costume design for a cavalier in 'Les Tentations de la bergere'
#61 - Questions about Juan Gris
1) What is the meaning of Cubism?
a) the direction modern art turned to in the sixteenth century
b) the reduction of natural forms to their geometrical equivalents
c) the reduction of space and balance in sculpture
d) the medium used to create a painting with impasto
2) Why do you think Gris made an important exemplar of the post-war "return to order"
movement?
a) his preference for clarity and order, which influenced the Purist style
b) he was s soldier who had fought on the front lines
c) like his father before him, he took chances with the avant-garde
d) his dislike of secondary colors in his paintings became his signature
3) Which statement best describes that Juan Gris was a quietist?
a) his life was spent in solitude as a result of mutism
b) his life was lived as if it were one large never-ending party
c) his live was spent in the throes of passion
d) his life was ostensibly marked by few major incidents
4) Based on the fact that although Gris submitted darkly humorous illustrations to
journals, yet he began to paint seriously in 1910, which of these conclusions is accurate?
a) by 1911 he has known throughout the country as a man to be reckoned with
b) by 1914 he had abandoned painting for sculpture
c) by 1912 his childhood disease had caught up with him and his art suffered
d) by 1912 he had developed a personal Cubist style
5) Which of the following is a reason for Gris' remark about Cezanne, the universally
acknowledged father of Cubism: 'Cezanne made a cylinder out of a bottle. I make a bottle
out of a cylinder'?
a) Gris was always envious of Cezanne's status
b) Gris knew that his type of sculpture of cutting edge
c) Gris evolved a very personal variety of Cubism
d) Gris felt it was time the father of cubism gave up his title