Artwork
Abstraction (Guitar and Glass)
Abstraction (Guitar and Glass) is an oil painting by the Cubism Synthetic artist Juan Gris. It dates from 1913 and is held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The work abstracts these everyday objects into simplified geometric shapes, reflecting the Cubist movement's focus on fragmented representation.
Juan Gris's 1913 oil painting Abstraction (Guitar and Glass) portrays a guitar and a drinking glass arranged in a still life composition. The work abstracts these everyday objects into simplified geometric shapes, reflecting the Cubist movement's focus on fragmented representation. The depicted guitar and glass serve as symbolic elements within the still life genre, emphasizing structure and form over literal depiction.
Technique & Style
Juan Gris painted Abstraction (Guitar and Glass) in 1913 using oil on canvas. The work measures 91.4 cm in height and 59.7 cm in width, depicting a guitar and a drinking glass in an abstracted still life arrangement. Its formal qualities include flattened planes of muted color and interlocking geometric shapes that dissolve the represented objects into compositional structure.
The surface retains original handling marks but shows no significant condition issues, preserving the integrity of Gris's technique.
The painting's execution emphasizes planar fragmentation and analytical abstraction, characteristic of early Cubist still lifes. Gris's handling of oil on canvas creates subtle textural variations that guide the viewer's eye across the pictorial space, while the restrained palette heightens the structural clarity of the composition.
History & Provenance
Juan Gris's 1913 painting Abstraction (Guitar and Glass) is held in the permanent collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The work, executed in oil paint on canvas, depicts a guitar and a drinking glass within a still-life composition. Specific inventory or accession numbers for the piece are not provided in the available records, though the museum maintains the painting as part of its holdings.
The artwork measures 91.4 cm in height and 59.7 cm in width. No specific exhibition history is documented in the provided sources.
Overview
Juan Gris painted Abstraction (Guitar and Glass) in 1913 using oil on canvas. The work belongs to the Cubist movement and presents a still life composed of a guitar and a drinking glass. It is currently held in the collection of the Art Institute of Chicago. The composition reduces familiar objects into interlocking planes, emphasizing structure over naturalistic representation.
Context
In 1913, Gris was refining Synthetic Cubism, moving beyond the monochromatic fragmentation of Analytic Cubism toward more structured, colorful compositions. This work emerged amid a broader European interest in redefining representation through abstraction. Everyday objects served as accessible subjects for exploring how form, color, and space could be reimagined beyond traditional perspective.
Legacy
Abstraction (Guitar and Glass) exemplifies Gris’s systematic approach to Cubism, influencing later developments in modernist design and abstraction. Its clarity of form and controlled palette distinguish it within the movement, offering a model for integrating recognizable elements into abstract frameworks. The painting remains a key reference in studies of early 20th-century European painting and the evolution of still-life conventions.
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Artist & collection
Artist
José Victoriano González-Pérez, better known as Juan Gris, was a Spanish painter born in Madrid who lived and worked in France for most of his active period.
