(piano playing softly)
(soft music playing)
This is Georges Braque,
"Still Life
With a Bottle of Rum,"
which dates
from the spring of 1914.
I looked at this painting
to try understanding
the sequences and the processes
that the artist
was going through,
that either are on the surface,
or sometimes emanate
from under the surface.
I was stunned
by the thinness of the canvas,
and how almost transparent
the paint layer is.
We start to see
a green paint layer
showing through the brush stroke
right here.
He obviously started
the composition
in a very different way,
using different colors.
And I thought, actually,
maybe just by looking at it
against the light,
as one would actually look
at a piece of paper,
through the light--
I started seeing
things appearing.
He actually used
this green paint layer
in many different places,
early on.
The other thing that was
revealed with transmitted light,
Braque, instead of having
the paper going this way,
had another paper
in this orientation.
And more importantly, I saw
the headlines of this paper,
that was very different
from this one.
This told us right away that
this was "Le Petit Provencal,"
which was a regional newspaper
from the south of France,
where, of course, Braque
and Picasso spent many summers.
Another really striking feature
that appeared
with transmitted light
was all the little pinholes
showing through.
It was just like
a constellation of pinholes
throughout the whole canvas.
I started making the connection
between the shapes
that we see on the surface
and also under the surface,
meaning that he would probably
have cut out pieces of paper
and pinned them
very strategically
in order to work out
his composition.
This is a very interesting thing
for me,
because I've never seen
an artist
almost drawing like this
on his canvas.
He's not drawing, but he's
physically using cut-out shapes.
This, to me, was really
the most interesting revelation
about his technique
and his process.
In a way, it's really nice,
a hundred years later,
to be able to kind of
get in the secret,
and, you know,
really making a discovery
about his very interesting,
idiosyncratic approach
to painting.
(piano playing softly)
(final chord plays)
