The Glass 1914

Juan Gris made this painting, called "The Glass," using oil on canvas, and its subdued palette feels very intimate. I love the way Gris lets the planes of colour overlap, like he's inviting us into a quiet conversation about seeing. You know, as painters, we're always trying to break things apart and put them back together in a way that makes you look twice. The way he's rendered the glass, it’s like he's caught the world in a fragmented reflection. I wonder if Gris was listening to jazz when he made this; it feels like there’s a musical rhythm there, with the geometric shapes dancing across the surface. It reminds me of Picasso and Braque, those early cubists who were rearranging the world one brushstroke at a time. Painting is such a direct, physical thing, right? I feel like artists are always in conversation with each other across time. We all learn from, steal from, and build upon what came before.