Still Life with a Glass and Ace of Clubs

Pablo Picasso Spanish

Not on view

The construction technique Picasso used when making both three-dimensional reliefs and papiers collés perfectly suited his quickfire imagination, gift for improvisation, and dexterity. To speed up the creative process, he standardized his representation of key tabletop motifs, such as the fluted wineglass, and prepared a corps of cutout fruit, pipes, and playing cards that he could draw from when assembling his papiers collés. The brightly colored quarter apple in this example came from his existing stock. A few meandering black lines and deft snips transformed a scrap of paint-daubed paper into a surprisingly convincing marble shelf, the hand-drawn line beneath it enhancing the impression of physical projection.

Still Life with a Glass and Ace of Clubs, Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France), Pasted printed wallpaper, laid and wove papers, charcoal, graphite, and gouache on paperboard

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Courtesy of National Gallery of Art, Washington