The Mirror Broken
The Cubist portraits painted by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, followed by those of Juan Gris, Albert Gleizes, Gino Severini, Salvador Dalí and Diego Rivera were based on formal fragmentation and simultaneity of representation. Like a reflection in a broken mirror, the portrait lost its outlines, while the body, fragmented into multiple facets, fused with the world around it. Body and figure, interior and exterior, ceased to be separate elements and it was the viewer’s gaze that had to reconstruct this complex puzzle.
The Cubist portraits painted by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, followed by those of Juan Gris, Albert Gleizes, Gino Severini, Salvador Dalí and Diego Rivera were based on formal fragmentation and simultaneity of representation. Like a reflection in a broken mirror, the portrait lost its outlines, while the body, fragmented into multiple facets, fused with the world around it. Body and figure, interior and exterior, ceased to be separate elements and it was the viewer’s gaze that had to reconstruct this complex puzzle.
Pablo Picasso
Head of a Woman (Fernande), 1909
Oil on canvas, 25 5/8 x 21 5/8 in. (65 x 55 cm)
Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main
Property of the Städelscher Museums-Verein e.V.
Juan Gris
The Smoker (Frank Burty Haviland), 1913
Oil on canvas, 28 3/4 x 21 1/4 in. (73 x 54 cm)
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Gino Severini
Self-Portrait, 1960 (replica of a work of 1912)
Oil on canvas, 21 5/8 x 18 1/4 in. (55 x 46.3 cm)
Centre Pompidou, Paris
Musée national d'art moderne/Centre de création industrielle
Gift of Mme Severini and her daughters, 1967
Self-Portrait, 1960 (replica of a work of 1912)
Oil on canvas, 21 5/8 x 18 1/4 in. (55 x 46.3 cm)
Centre Pompidou, Paris
Musée national d'art moderne/Centre de création industrielle
Gift of Mme Severini and her daughters, 1967