Glass, Newspaper, and Die

Pablo Picasso Spanish

Not on view

Picasso constructed this relief inside a shallow wooden box, which approximates the frames that enclose Renaissance reliefs by the likes of Lorenzo Ghiberti. The fluted wineglass, carved from a rough scrap of wood, is seen both straight on and from above, as in a Cubist painting. The top of the die is sliced off in a spoof of steep linear perspective. For the newspaper, Picasso repurposed a powdered-milk tin, cutting and crumpling it as if it were paper. He used its embossed lettering to represent printed text but painted the letters of the masthead, [LE] JO[UR]NAL, by hand. Straying beyond the box’s threshold, it parodies the curling documents of trompe l’oeil paintings, whereas everything else undermines the very notion of illusionism.

Glass, Newspaper, and Die, Pablo Picasso (Spanish, Malaga 1881–1973 Mougins, France), Oil, painted tin, iron wire, and wood

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© RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NY. Photo: Béatrice Hatala