Glass and Checkerboard

José Victoriano González-Pérez, better known as Juan Gris, was a Spanish painter born in Madrid who lived and worked in France for most of his active period. Closely connected to the innovative artistic genre Cubism, his works are among the movement's most distinctive. Like we see in today's featured artwork: the irregular, geometric shapes painted in intense colors of burnt orange, pale peach, light blue, forest and mint green, brown, taupe, gray, and black are layered and spread across this horizontal, abstract painting. They are mostly flat planes of color. One shape to our right of the center has five rows of rounded rectangles to create a checkerboard pattern of sage green against terracotta brown. A wide parchment-brown band divides the checkerboard from top to bottom. Look at this marvelous composition!

If you would like to learn more about and maybe understand more Cubism, please check our 101 Cubism online course.  :)

P.S. How well do you know the life and art of Pablo Picasso, the famous creator of Cubism? Test yourself in our quiz!