Horst Pavel

German

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We look down onto a pile with a newspaper, theater program, pipe, a black and white checkerboard, and other objects painted as abstracted, geometric forms on a tabletop in this nearly square still life painting. Near the center, a rectangular form like a newspaper is painted with the headline “LE JOURNAL.” Next to it, to our left, a playbill has the name “FANTOMAS” written in black against a parakeet-green background, above black mask and a “65” in a circle below. There are blocks of stylized, painted wood grain and other areas of color that do not line up with the objects represented. For instance, this conflicting pattern means that the lettering of the newspaper changes from white against the brown woodgrain to green against white. Moreover, seemingly unconnected to the objects, colors, and spaces below, yet more objects like a goblet and bowl of fruit are painted with white outlines that overlay the wood and objects below. A checkerboard pattern is layered under the woodgrain and papers, near the lower right corner, and another pattern like architectural molding carved with stylized leaves runs along the back, above the papers. The papers and a few other objects seem to cast shadows on the blocks of color behind them, so areas of lilac purple at the top left and burgundy red along the right edge read visually as a background behind everything. The artist signed the work in black on the lower left corner: “Juan Gris 8-1915.”
Juan Gris, Fantômas, 1915, oil on canvas, Chester Dale Fund, 1976.59.1

Fantômas

Juan Gris · 1915 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1976.59.1