Juan Gris

Born José Victoriano González-Peréz, Juan Gris was an avant-garde Spanish painter and pioneer of Cubism. His early work largely consisted of Art Nouveau commercial illustrations for monthly publications, but after moving to Paris in 1906, he increasingly adopted the Cubist style of his new friends Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Their aim was to construct a single image as if seen from multiple angles simultaneously, and by 1912, Gris had both officially embraced Cubism and also shown work at the Salon des Indépendants. He quickly developed his own method called ‘Synthetic’ Cubism, which incorporated strong color in contrast to the monochrome palettes of Picasso and Braque. His approach was also more analytical, often using paper collage in combination with charcoal and paint. He also designed sets and costumes for Diaghilev’s Ballets. Despite his early death from Kidney failure, he left an indelible mark on the development of Modernism.