The artwork titled “Fruit dish,” created by the celebrated artist Pablo Picasso in 1917, is an oil painting on canvas and a quintessential example of Synthetic Cubism. Measuring 40 cm by 28.1 cm, this piece fits within the still life genre and showcases the innovative style prevalent during the Synthetic Cubism movement, which Picasso played a significant role in developing.
In the artwork, the viewer observes a composition that dissects and reassembles the traditional still life subject matter, breaking down forms and reconstructing them in a flattened pictorial space. This abstraction and reorganization of form and perspective is characteristic of Synthetic Cubism. The use of simplified shapes and interlocking planes creates a cohesive composition that simultaneously presents multiple viewpoints. A palette consisting of both muted and vibrant colors lends the painting earthiness, yet allows for certain elements, like the fruits, to pop with vitality. The delineation of objects is not crisp but rather blended through the use of color and shape, which fuses the various components of the dish, the fruit, and the background into a single, harmonized aesthetic experience.
