Provenance
Estate of the artist, from 1927 [Cooper 1977; letter from Eleanore Saidenberg, February 13, 1975, copy in curatorial file]. Galerie Simon, Paris, from 1930 [Saidenberg letter cited above]; sold to the Saidenberg Gallery, New York, 1956 [Saidenberg letter cited above]; sold to the Art Institute, 1956.
Accession Number
86246
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
92.1 × 73 cm (36 1/4 × 28 7/8 in.)
Classification
oil on canvas
Credit Line
Ada Turnbull Hertle Endowment; gift of Mrs. Leigh B. Block
Background & Context
Background Story
Juan Gris's The Checkerboard (1915) is an oil on canvas from the Synthetic Cubist period. The checkerboard, with its regular grid of alternating dark and light squares, was a subject that appealed to Gris's systematic, analytical mind. The composition is built around the grid of the checkerboard, which provides a structural framework for the arrangement of other Cubist elements: perhaps a glass, a bottle, a piece of fruit, or other objects from the Cubist repertoire. The palette is more varied than the muted earth tones of Analytic Cubism, with brighter colors appearing in the composition. The oil on canvas technique is precise and controlled, the forms defined with clear edges and flat areas of color. The Checkerboard is a masterwork of Synthetic Cubism, demonstrating Gris's ability to combine rigorous formal structure with the representation of everyday reality. The checkerboard grid becomes both a structural element and a subject in itself, the painting oscillating between abstraction and representation.
Cultural Impact
Gris's Checkerboard paintings are among the most intellectually ambitious works of Synthetic Cubism, using the grid as both a formal structure and a subject of representation.
Why It Matters
This painting of a checkerboard explores the relationship between geometric structure and representation, the grid providing a framework for a Cubist composition that oscillates between abstraction and still life.
