Commemorating the 29th anniversary of the exhibition Juan Gris in Galería Theo in 1977, the first gallery to show his work in Spain, Galería Elvira González opens a show of 32 works on canvas and paper on the 12th of January 2006. The exhibition goes from Juan Gris’ early drawings from 1909, to his methodical pre-war cubist pieces, through to his poetic post-war cubist period, culminating in one of his last works from 1927, the year of his early death.

The 20 works on paper, in pencil, charcoal, watercolour, gouache and ink, show the precision and continuity of Gris’ oeuvre, be it a portrait, a landscape or a still life of everyday objects, which for Gris, according to his friend Gertrude Stein, “was not a seduction, it was a religion”.

One can see in Nature morte au miroir from 1910 how the precise study of the object through drawing allowed Gris (according to his dealer Kahnweiler) “to master objects” and perfectly to understand the conceptual method of their pictorial representation. The use of chiaroscuro, the simple and firm lines communicate the essential form of an object to us, as if Gris saw “the concise expression of its individual form”. We can already see the pictorial rhymes - so indicative of Gris’ work – in the repetition of the forms through the reflection and the shadows. The perspective is similar to that of isometric projection, where objects are seen from a slightly elevated angle.

However, in Verre, pipe et journal, a pencil drawing from 1916, perspective plays a minimal role. We can note the fragmentation of space typical of the cubists, using light and dark planes to show the spatial relationships between objects, creating a coherent composition.

The representation of musical instruments so common in Gris’ work is present in an ink and gouache drawing from 1923, Nature morte à la guitare et un livre de musique, which has an even more concise composition. The flat, geometric forms underline the Cubist decomposition of the objects. Manifest here is Gris’ “deductive method”, where he takes an abstract structure as a starting point in order to create certain figurative elements.

The exhibition also includes 12 oil paintings, dated from 1919 to 1927. In La casserole, from 1919, the influence of Spanish Baroque painting’s dramatic use of light is apparent in the contrasts of black and white, as is Gris’ characteristic use of intense colours in this period. Again, the visual game of reflected images is evident:

“The hole in the saucepan’s handle (upper right) funnels light to appear as a grey dot in the upper left that functions as simultaneously as the open mouth of the wine bottle and signals a visual rhythm of circular forms across the surface of the canvas. The dynamic equilibrium between representation and abstraction illustrates how Gris’ work transcends naturalism in favour of the poetic.” (M. Rosenthal)

Apollinaire said that Cubism “is one of the pure tendencies. It is the art of painting new structures out of elements borrowed not from the reality of sight, but from the reality of insight. […] The geometric aspect (…) came from the fact that the essential reality was rendered with great purity, while visual incidents and anecdotes had been eliminated”. This can be appreciated in Le compotier from 1921. This piece denotes a change in Gris’ work, with contrasts of lighter tones, an extensive use of white and a palette of browns and bluish purples. The artist is moving towards a less austere, more poetic composition.

Later one can see an intensification of Gris’ colours; reds, browns, blues and greens, and a softer composition, with defined contours which bring out the volume of the objects depicted and which provide a contrast to the flat backgrounds. As can be seen in La table devant le tableau, from 1926, painted a year before his death, there is also a contrast between the soft curves of the fruit and the sharp angles of the knife and the frame.

Gris defined the final result of his work as “flat, coloured architecture” and stated that “Cézanne created a cylinder from a bottle. For my part I depart from the cylinder to create (…) a certain bottle. Cézanne heads towards architecture, whereas I depart from it”.

While some pieces have been generously lent by private collectors, this exhibition of still lifes, landscapes and portraits, is primarily made up of works for sale.