The Spanish artist María Blanchard worked in Paris as a Cubist between 1916 and 1919. In Still Life, she portrayed multiple, simultaneous viewpoints in an abstract style based on geometry and flat planes. Although other Cubists used collage elements in their work, Blanchard was unique in her use of three-dimensional elements to create an image that fluctuates between the concrete and the illusionary. During her lifetime, Blanchard was celebrated by her fellow Cubists, and she shared studios with Juan Gris and Diego Riviera, the latter of whom described her as producing Cubism’s “finest works, apart from our master, Picasso.”
