CUBISM

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CUBISM

• 1907-1921

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"M. Braque scorns form and reduces everything,
sites, figures and houses, to geometric schemas
and cubes."

• Louis Vauxcelles, art critic on seeing Georges
  Braques exhibition at the Daniel-Henry
  Kahnweiler Gallery in 1908.

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What is Cubism?

• An influential avant-garde art movement in the
  early 20th century.
• Cubist painters rejected the traditional concept
  that art should be a direct representation or
  copy of nature. They ignored traditional
  techniques such as natural perspectives,
  modelling and foreshortening.
• The Cubist manner of painting heavily reduced and
  fractured objects into geometric lines, forms and
  shapes.

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Context A New World Era

• The early 20th century marked CHANGE.
• Major discoveries in science and technology (e.g.
  Einsteins Theory of Relativity)
• Advancements in transport (e.g. First airplane
  flight)
• Imperialism (Africa, Asia and the Pacific region)
• WWI devastation, fear, doubt, less confidence
  etc.
• The Atomic Age
• There was increasing demand for art that could be
  enjoyed by the general public and not only the
  elites.
• Picasso and Braque reacted to these changes with
  a new artistic style Cubism

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What influenced Cubism?

• Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906)
• Cézanne (1904) artists should treat nature in
  terms of the cylinder, the sphere and the cone.
• Georges Seurat (French, 1859-1891)
• Primitivism and non-Western art, especially
  Iberian sculptures and African art.
• Fauvism
• Avant-gardism and Modernism in Europe

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How did Cubism develop?

• There were two stages of Cubism
• Analytic Cubism (based more on intellect than
  emotion). The style was less literal and more
  conceptual i.e. fragmenting into angles, lines
  and shapes.
• Synthetic Cubism collage The artists attached
  bits of newspaper, cloth and other objects on the
  paintings.

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Key Cubist Artists

• Pablo Picasso
• Georges Braque
• Cubism was developed by these artists.
• Other Cubist artists were..
• Juan Gris
• Jean Metzinger

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Pablo Picasso
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Girl with a Mandolin, Picasso, 1910, Oil on canvas

• A girl (Fanny Tellier) plays the mandolin, which
  is a plucked string instrument.

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Still Life with a Bottle of Rum, Picasso, 1911,
Oil on canvas

• In the upper centre of the picture are what seem
  to be the neck and opening of a bottle. Some
  spidery black lines to the left of it might
  denote sheet music, and the round shape lower
  down, the base of a glass. In the center, at the
  far right, is the pointed spout of a porrón
  (Spanish wine bottle). This is one of the first
  works in which Picasso included letter forms. It
  has been suggested that the ones shown at the
  left, LETR, refer to Le Torero, the magazine for
  bullfighting fansPicasso being one of thembut
  they might simply be a pun on lettre, French for
  "word. http//www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cube/ho
  _1999.363.63.htm

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The Accordionist, Picasso, 1911, Oil on canvas
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Still Life with Chair Caning, Picasso

• There are clear shapes of objects newspaper, a
  slice of pie, a lemon, a knife and a goblet. The
  brushstrokes seem to hover on top of the caning.

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Georges Braque

• By 1906, Braque was a member of the Fauves. After
  seeing Picassos Les Demoiselles d Avignon in an
  exhibition, he joined Picasso. In 1907 the two
  artists began working together to develop a new
  style.

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Man with a Guitar, Braque, 1911, Oil on canvas
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Roads near L Estaque, Braque, 1908, Oil on canvas

• fragments of sky interplay with broken planes
  of green vegetation, earthy fields and warm
  rooftopslight comes from conflicting sources.

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Juan Gris
Still life with Fruit Dish and Mandolin, 1919
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Violin and Playing Cards, Gris, 1913, Oil on
canvas

• On the simulated wood-grain table rest three
  playing cards, a violin, and the newspaper Le
  Journal. The violin is indicated by different
  shaded passages of wood-graining, as also by the
  instrument's purple, green, and black "shadows."
  Black, sky blue, and purple angular planes enrich
  the composition, which is set against a deep
  rust-red diamond-patterned background emulating
  the wallpaper. http//www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/
  11/eusi/ho_1996.403.14.htm

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Cubist Style of Painting

• Picasso and Braque shared an almost identical
  style during high Analytic Cubism (1910-12).
  Paintings from this time lack the elements of
  light, atmosphere and space that give depth and
  richness to the natural world.
• Subject matter From immediate surroundings based
  on life in the new modern era.
• Colour Muted, mostly monochromatic browns and
  greys not important to the picture. More focus
  is placed on form and structure.
• Form Figures and objects have been reduced,
  fractured and dissected into geometric elements
  angles, lines, arcs, shapes etc. The technical
  and abstracted forms create a distinct sense of
  movement in the overall image. There are still
  recognisable objects that help the viewer
  understand the painting. Picasso and Braque
  reduced the objects to their basic planes and
  angles and then reassembled them in a shallow,
  ambiguous space. The fragments overlap, forming
  geometric patterns, which suggest a
  representation of the actual object.

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Cubist Style of Painting (contd)

• Perspective Picasso and Braque felt that the
  most accurate representation of reality in
  painting was one that revealed multiple
  viewpoints of an object at the same time.
• Media Techniques With Synthetic Cubism,
  artists collaged using different materials.
  Instead of reproducing the look of the materials,
  they used the actual materials themselves.
• Motifs contemporary still life with musical
  instruments, bottles, glasses, newspapers,
  playing cards and the human face and figure.
  These reflect on everyday life, especially the
  social and relaxing aspects (e.g. food, leisure).
  Cubism was about looking beyond the literal form
  of these contemporary motifs from an intellectual
  perspective.
• Gris developed a colourful Cubist style of
  broad, angular, overlapping planes. His use of
  light and modelling forms were more naturalistic
  and descriptive.

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What Art Critics Say

• At first glance, Cubism appears to be a
  purposeful distortion of visual experience, as if
  the artists have consciously tried to shatter and
  splinter their subjects into an incredibly
  cramped space. But this is only partially true,
  and is more a result of visual priorities than
  outright mischief.
• Art Context and Criticism, John Kissick (1993)
• perhaps the most pivotal movement in Western
  Art since the RenaissanceCubism would forever
  change the way artists represented the world
  around them.
• Movements in Art Cubism, Shannon Robinson (2006)