Red Table Top Still Life

In Red Table Top Still Life, Alfred Maurer disrupted the conventions of realistic delineation and perspective to create a nearly abstract composition. He depicted the same objects from several perspectives, tilting the tabletop up toward the viewer while depicting the table's base as though seen from the side. Elements on the table are reduced to their geometric essences, making their specific identities unrecognizable. The green tablecloth becomes indistinct and seems to lose its connection to the table as it recedes into the background. Maurer's spatial experimentation stemmed from his study of the paintings of Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse, and the Cubist work of Pablo Picasso, which he encountered while living in Paris from 1897 to 1914. When Maurer returned to the United States at the outbreak of World War I, he became one of the first American artists to work in a Cubist-influenced style.