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© Roxane Gilbert
All rights reserved
(1887-1927)
Juan Gris was born José Victoriano Carmelo Carlos González Pérez in Madrid, Spain. In 1902 enrolled to study engineering at Escuela de Artes y Manufacturas (Escuela Industrial), but left in 1904 to study painting with José Moreno Carbonero, an academic landscape and genre painter who later instructed Salvador Dalí. This formal training left Gris with distaste, and drove him him toward the avant-garde and Art Nouveau.
In 1906, Gris evaded mandatory military service in Spain by moving to Paris. Because he failed to pay the exemption tax, he was considered a criminal in Spain. He could never return, nor could he get a passport.
Shortly upon arriving in Paris, nearly penniless, he met his countryman, Pablo Picasso, who helped him find a studio and living space. In 1907, Picasso introduced him to Georges Braque.
It was not until 1911 that Gris fully embraced Cubism, and by 1912 he was considered a notable talent in that movement. Following Picasso and Braque, Gris begins using papier collé in September of 1912. Beginning in 1914, he worked almost exclusively in collage for about a year.
Most immediately notable about his work was the variety and strength of his color. Unmatched by Picasso and Braque in this regard, Gris employed color in a rich and complex manner. With this added element, his pictures took on an intensely refined subtlety that would characterize his work for the remainder of (his) career.1
The first symptoms of serious illness began in May of 1920. Gris and his companion, Josette Herpin, moved frequently in search of a beneficial climate. His work showed decline from 1922 to 1924, and the last years of his life, from 1925 to 1927 were filled with pain, although he created his late masterpieces during this period. He died in May 11, 1927, of chronic renal failure.
Juan Gris Prints & Posters
Cubist Prints & Posters
References:
Juan Gris by Mark Rosenthal; (1983) Abbeville Press; New York, NY
1op. cit., page 37
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