The Musician’s Table

Juan Gris

1914 · Conté crayon, wax crayon, gouache, cut-and-pasted printed wallpaper, blue and white laid papers, transparentized paper, newspaper, and brown wrapping paper; selectively varnished on canvas · Modern and Contemporary Art

This collage is one of three by Gris that showcases the word “explorers” and news of an international dispute over who “discovered” an unmapped river in the Amazon Basin. The headline “Explorateurs en désaccord” (Explorers in Discord) and claims of precedence likely allude to the rivalry, or even a rift, between Braque and Picasso. Gris doctored the newspaper to appear as a single page when it really consists of two. The headline from the previous day, “L’enquête atroce” (The Atrocious Affair), while providing a wry gloss on the other story here, reports on war crimes committed during the Second Balkan War. More often than the two “pioneering” Cubists, Gris interrupted the artifice of his still lifes with brutal realities from the real world.

Artist

Juan Gris

Date

1914

Medium

Conté crayon, wax crayon, gouache, cut-and-pasted printed wallpaper, blue and white laid papers, transparentized paper, newspaper, and brown wrapping paper; selectively varnished on canvas

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection, Purchase, Leonard A. Lauder Gift, in celebration of the Museum’s 150th Anniversary, 2018