Fruit Dish, Ace of Clubs
Georges Braque - 1913, Oil, gouache and charcoal on canvas 81 x 60 cm.
In 1912, the cubist movement evolved seven different innovations, one of these was collage and, the first example of collage to be used was in the May of that year by Picasso on his 'Still Life with Cain Chair'. Collage was soon to be used by many other different artists and became a popular way to create different surface textures.
Braque's 'Fruit Dish, Ace of Clubs' combines all the major new introductions to Cubism in the one work. The work illustrates the 'Synthetic' cubist method of making abstract elements signify objects. 'Faux bois' painting a, new style of textured painting which, leads to resemble wooden paneling and the usage of mixed media are, also evident. The grapes are naturalistically painted on and around the dish, the dish being elevated on one side so that the dish is seen from above.
Another modern introduction of that time sown in this painting is the use of newspaper headlines and drawn typographical elements. Braque did not use newspaper headlines in the same way as Picasso did, Braque used them just to, relate to a name of, people he knew or of objects in the still lives. Picasso on the other hand created witty comments and sarcasm to work with and around the painting or, for no reason other than putting a word across.