CUBISM

1. CUBISM 1907-1921

2. "M. Braque scorns form and reduces everything, sites, figures and houses, to geometric schemas and cubes." Louis Vauxcelles, art critic – on seeing Georges Braque’s exhibition at the Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler Gallery in 1908.

3. 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.

4. Context: A New World Era • The early 20th century marked CHANGE. • Major discoveries in science and technology (e.g. Einstein’s 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

5. 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

6. How did Cubism develop? • There were twostages 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.

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

8. Pablo Picasso

9. Girl with a Mandolin, Picasso, 1910, Oil on canvas A girl (Fanny Tellier) plays the mandolin, which is a plucked string instrument.

10. 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 fans—Picasso being one of them—but they might simply be a pun on lettre, French for "word.” [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cube/ho_1999.363.63.htm}

11. The Accordionist, Picasso, 1911, Oil on canvas

12. 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.

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

14. Man with a Guitar, Braque, 1911, Oil on canvas

15. Roads near L’ Estaque, Braque, 1908, Oil on canvas “…fragments of sky interplay with broken planes of green vegetation, earthy fields and warm rooftops…light comes from conflicting sources.”

16. Juan Gris Still life with Fruit Dish and Mandolin, 1919

17. 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]

18. 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.

19. Cubist Style of Painting (cont’d) • 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.

20. 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 Renaissance…Cubism would forever change the way artists represented the world around them.” Movements in Art: Cubism, Shannon Robinson (2006)