Sketch Book for the Artist

OBJECTS

AND

INSTRUMENTS

Still Life

THESE DRAWINGS REVEAL two opposite motivations in

representing still life. Below, Braques image is a Cubist

collage. One of the great joys of this movement in art is the

musicality of its multipoint view. Braques "justly" arranged

combination of cut black card, wood-look wallpaper,

charcoal, and a journal jacket with words makes this drawing

chatter about the moment. He takes us into the bustle of the

Paris cafe, steaming with music and conversation. Even today

we can. still feel this projected moment. Opposite, Mucha's

drawing glistens with possession, not of place but of things;

perfect in their newly made availability. There is a fragile

eloquence to these objects as they drift in slow motion past

our gaze. This is a designers drawing made to enthuse

surface and style in its delicate brushing of china, silverware,

and glass objects of exquisite elegance for only the gentlest

of touch and appreciation.

GEORGES BRAQUE

French painter who as a young man was influenced

by the work of the Fauves and of Cezanne. Braque

established Cubism in partnership with Picasso just

before World War I. His work is characterized by

calm and harmonious still-life compositions.

Clashes The art historian Ernst Gombrich said of Cubism,

"I believe [it] is the most radical attempt to stamp out

ambiguity and to enforce one reading of the picture—that

of a manmade construction, a colored canvas. ...Braque

marshals all the forces of perspective, texture, and shading,

not to work in harmony, but to clash in virtual deadlock."

La Cuitare, Statue D'Epouvante

1913

2ft 5 in x 3 ft 5 in (0.73 x 1 m)

GEORGES BRAQUE