Gris, Juan
Fruit Dish, Glass, and Lemon (Still Life with Newspaper)
Gris, Juan
Fruit Dish, Glass, and Lemon (Still Life with Newspaper)
1916 (120 Kb); Oil on canvas, 73 x 60 cm (28 3/4 x 23 5/8 in); The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. (DC 188)
Fruit Dish, Glass, and Lemon shows the remarkable degree to which Gris could manage black and white. His black is shadow, but it is schematically flattened, taking its place as a planar entity lying next to, not behind, the object whose reflection it is. Gris's black has many precedents in the art of his native Spain, yet his is as awesome as any in the country's history. White has the character of objectified light, as if a schematic rendering of the place where light is striking or reflecting. In the midst of these powerful contrasts appear the gold of the lemon and the rust color of the table.