About the artist
Spanish artist Juan Gris (1887-1927), a painter, sculptor, illustrator, and designer, primarily operated in Paris after moving there in 1906. Initially, he sustained himself through whimsical illustrations for various magazines, not delving into serious painting until around 1910. Influenced heavily by Picasso, Gris quickly adopted the Cubist style, and by 1912, he was regarded as a key Cubist artist, second only to Picasso and Braque. Gris later refined his unique approach to Synthetic Cubism, where he employed papier collé extensively. He often described his work as 'flat, coloured architecture,' with a systematic visual analysis surpassing even Picasso and Braque. Gris pulled inspiration from his immediate environment, focusing on still lifes, landscapes, and portraits, but he created his images from preconceived notions rather than external objects. He once commented, "I strive to materialise the abstract... I create a specific bottle from a cylinder, unlike Cézanne, who transforms a bottle into a cylinder.
