Frames of Reference: “Table” and “Tableau” in Picasso's Collages and Constructions

Abstract

In the spring of 1912, Picasso pasted a piece of oilcloth printed with a trompe-l'oeil chair-caning pattern to the surface of a small oval canvas representing a cafe still life (Fig. 1). This work, which he also framed with a coarse rope, has acquired legendary status in the history of art as the first deliberately executed collage; the first work of fine art, that is, in which materials appropriated from everyday life, relatively untransformed by the artist, intrude upon the traditionally privileged domain of painting. Picasso's Still Life with Chair-Caning challenged some of the most fundamental assumptions about the nature of painting inherited by Western artists from the time of the Renaissance, including our understanding of how works of art exist in the world. This paper will address the ways in which Picasso's collages undermine both classical and “modernist” models for understanding the ontological status of works of art, by instituting an ambiguous play with frames and framing motifs, as well as ...