Braque, Georges

In 1902, following an initial artistic training in Le Havre, Georges Braque went to Paris. After his fauvist period in 1907, he met the art dealer and future publisher Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler as well as Guillaume Apollinaire, who in turn introduced him to Pablo Picasso. From then on, a close bond of friendship united Braque with Picasso. In the following year, the first Cubist paintings were created in L’Estaque, near Marseilles: landscapes and still lifes, they are no longer concerned with light and colour, but primarily with the exploration and restructuring of space. Many of the Cubist works contain musical instruments; beginning in around 1911, Braque also introduced printed and drawn lettering as a compositional element to his painting. His sense for materiality soon led him to also use mixed materials such as sand and sawdust in his oil paintings. In 1912, as analytical Cubism was slowly transforming into synthetic Cubism, he created the first “papiers collés”, paper collages. In 1914 Braque was conscripted into the military, and he was severely wounded the following year. It was not until early 1917 that he began to paint again. Regardless of the motif selected by Braque, he was not concerned with an approximation of nature, with a portrayal or a symbol, but primarily with purely formal thoughts. Beside his painterly work, Braque also created a rich graphic oeuvre. The central theme of these works is the world of the gods, as well as birds, flowers and heads. The long series of artist’s books illustrated by Braque was begun in 1921.