Juan Gris was one of the leading figures in Cubist movement who followed Picasso and Braque. His original name was José Victoriano Carmelo Carlos González-Pérez and was born in Madrid in 1887. Further, he attended the Escuela de Artes y Manufacturas in 1902 until 1904 where he studied math, physics, and mechanical drawing. This academic life did not interest him and he decided to move further with his natural ability to draw. Once he left school, he decided to study under a prominent artist in Madrid, José Moreno Carbonero who also taught Picasso and Dalí. In 1905, the cubist artist changed his name to Juan Gris and moved to Paris in 1906 a little while after his father’s death. During his first few years in Paris, he worked as a cartoonist for several magazines and periodicals. However, once he met artists such as Picasso, Braque, and Matisse; Gris was motivated to work on his own paintings. He began to gear towards Analytic Cubism using monochromatic colours, linear grids, and geometric planes; but later on in his career he shifted to Synthetic Cubism and created his own personal and mature version of it. Overall, he moved on to influence some great artists that came after him such as Salvador Dalí.
Moreover, I am personally not a huge fan of cubism in general. I am a lot more mesmerized by paintings that are similar to reality or that show a looser version of it. When things become distorted, I become a little more hesitant to enjoy the scene that the artist has depicted, but I do respect their techniques and ambitions. Although I must admit, Juan Gris’ version of cubism is a lot more captivating to me than Picasso’s. For some reason, his compositions are a more comforting to me. I do appreciate and recognize that not many people can pull off cubism. I feel that if I were to attempt my own version cubism, I would not be as successful as Gris was. All in all, despite the fact that I am not fond of this area in art history, I do recognize that Juan Gris has a special talent that not many possess.
Sources
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Juan-Gris
https://www.theartstory.org/artist/gris-juan/life-and-legacy/
Cassie,
Solid work on Gris here! You have significant information through your research combined with your personal opinions on the artist and his work. I like it when students share their opinions on certain aspects of art history, whether positive or negative. Also you PK presentation on Pissarro was equally as solid. You had good information there with an intelligently written and a well presented performance. I’m giving you a 9/10 for the PK and a 2/2 for the latest blog post. Well Done!
Jeff