The White Tablecloth

Spanish painter Juan Gris created such highly ordered, even mathematical, compositions that French poet and critic Guillaume Apollinaire dubbed him the demon of logic. Yet Gris was also a master colorist. This combination of structural rigor and coloristic inflection is evident in The White Tablecloth.

Gris dissects each object the wine bottle and its shadows, the tablecloth and its folds to create a still life that is both lyrical and balanced. The stark white fabric is an eye-catching focal point, and with it Gris breaks up the dark, muted greens of the bottle and russet browns of the table and background. The artist's architectural arrangement of objects and his overlapping of shapes suggest the technique of collage (papers pasted directly to the canvas), but Gris also celebrates the act of painting with the tablecloth's play of whites and grays.