Braque, Georges (1882-1963)
Violon, Mozart Kubelick (Violin, Mozart Kubelick)
1912
Oil on canvas, 45.7 x 61 cm
Private collection, Basel
© 2025 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Punning and multivalent references delighted Cubist artists and their literary friends. Any word containing the sound “cube” was immediately embraced, from the widely advertised pats of dehydrated broth (“bouillon KUB”) to the celebrated Czech violinist Jan Kubelík, whose name features prominently in this painting. In spring 1912, in connection with a retrospective of work by Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Kubelík performed a concert of Ingres’s favorite musical pieces on the deceased artist’s violin. The year after it was finished, the painting was included in the Armory Show, the exhibition that introduced modern art to America. One critic pointed out that even though Braque had misspelled Kubelík’s name, he had succeeded in putting the “art” in “Mozart.” (MET)