Bottle, Glass, and Newspaper

Georges Braque French

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In a witty version of a “mirror image,” Braque took the oval backing board off a looking glass, covered it with white gesso, and turned the vertical format to a horizontal one to emphasize the tabletop effect. The two pieces of differently grained faux bois stand for the respective wood planes of wall and table, reinforcing oscillating viewpoints, while the latter displays the daily news: two actual pages and hand-drawn letters that refer to the newspaper Le Journal. He placed an ad for Motobloc automobiles (suggesting the male “drive”) next to one publicizing L’amour obligatoire (Mandatory love), a handbook on women’s “proper” sexual comportment, and conjoined them with a wineglass amusingly split into positive and negative forms.

Bottle, Glass, and Newspaper, Georges Braque (French, Argenteuil 1882–1963 Paris), Charcoal and cut-and-pasted newspaper and printed wallpaper on gessoed paperboard (commercial board from mirror backing)

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