Cubism - Presentation

CUBISM

Introduction

Ò CUBISM- One of the most influential art movements (1907-1914) of the twentieth century.

Ò Cubism was begun by Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1882-1973) and Georges Braque (French, 1882-1963) in 1907.

Ò They were greatly inspired by African sculpture, by painters Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906) and Georges Seurat (French, 1859-1891), and by the Fauves.

Definition

Ò In Cubism the subject matter is broken up, analyzed, and reassembled in an abstracted form. Picasso and Braque initiated the movement when they followed the advice of Paul Cézanne, who in 1904 said artists should treat nature "in terms of the cylinder, the sphere and the cone."

Ò There were three phases in the development of Cubism

Ø Facet Cubism

Ø Analytic Cubism

Ø Synthetic Cubism

CONCEPTS OF ARTISTS

Ò Braque and Picasso's similar compositions are broken into planes with open edges, sliding into each other while denying all depth. Color is reduced to a gray-tan cameo, applied uniformly in small brushstrokes creating vibrations of light.

Ò Braque and Picasso brought recognizable illusionistic features back into their paintings during their stay in Céret, from 1911 to 1913.

Ò They used letters, fragments of words, musical notes, then significant material elements: sand or sawdust which create relief, and tend to make the picture more physically an object.

EXAMPLES OF CUBIST WORKS

Raymond Duchamp-Villon (French, 1876-1918), The Large Horse, 1914/1976, bronze, 150 x 97 x 153 cm, Georges Pompidou Center, Paris. See equine art.

Albert Gleizes (French, 1881-1953), Portrait of Jacques Nayral, 1911, oil on canvas, 161.9 x 114.0 cm, Tate Gallery, London.

PABLO PICASSO

Ò Pablo Picasso (born Pablo Ruiz-Picasso Spanish, 1881-1973), did so many arts like

§ Bust of a Woman, 1907, oil on canvas, 66 x 59 cm, Georges Pompidou Center, Paris.

§ Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907, oil on canvas, 8 feet x 7 feet 8 inches (243.9 x 233.7 cm), in the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Le guitariste, 1910

§ This is considered by many the first cubist painting. It was influenced by the paintings by Paul Cézanne and by the fauvists, as well as by African sculptures.

Ò The subjects of this picture are actually not women of the city of Avignon, but prostitutes of a street named Avignon.

BRAQUE’S CONTRIBUTION

Ò The Pedestal Table, autumn 1911, oil on canvas, 116.5 x 81.5 cm, Georges Pompidou Center, Paris.

Ò Still-Life with Violin, 1911, oil on canvas, 130 x 89 cm, Georges Pompidou Center, Paris.

Woman with a Guitar - 1913

Ò Fruit Dish, "Quotidien du Midi", Sorgues, August-September 1912, oil and sand on canvas,16 x 13 inches (41 x 33 cm), Thomas Ammann Fine Art, Zurich.

Ò Fruit Dish and Cards, 1913, oil, heightened with chalk and charcoal on canvas, 81 x 60 cm, Georges Pompidou Center, Paris.

Ò Bottle, Newspaper, Pipe, and Glass, 1913, charcoal and various papers pasted on paper, 18 7/8 x 25 1/4 inches (48 x 64 cm), private collection, NY.

Ò Glass, Carafe and Newspapers, 1914, pasted papers, chalk and charcoal on cardboard, 62.5 x 28.5 cm (24 5/8 x 11 1/4 inches), private collection, Basel.

DISTINGUISHING FEAUTERS

Ò Cubism represents the essence of a subject as seen by the artist and it creates a more complete idea of the subject than other artistic methods could achieve.

Ò Color returned in force in 1912, in parallel to the creation of the "papiers collés" — collages. Creating a simple geometric armature and pieces of glued paper with trompe l'oeil patterns imitating wood, marble or newsprint, then introducing "already made" elements (musical scores, tobacco packets or playing cards), the "papiers collés" definitively dissociate color and form.

Ò Picasso, then Henri Laurens would create construction pieces from ordinary materials, cut out and assembled into colored geometric planes, where empty and full spaces combine to sketch out the forms

SOCIAL AND POLITICAL SITUATION AT THAT TIME

Ò After fauvist beginnings, Braque went with Raoul Dufy in 1908 on a trip to l'Estaque, a place often painted by Cézanne. They produced a series of landscapes with simplified forms and a limited variety of colors.

Ò The controversy surrounding their exhibition at the Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler Gallery brought Cubism its name. In effect, the art critic Louis Vauxcelles described the works in this way: "M. Braque scorns form and reduces everything, sites, figures and houses, to geometric schemas and cubes."

CUBISM IN OTHER FIELDS

Ò Gertrude Stein written works employ repetition and repetitive phrases as building blocks in both passages and whole chapters.

Ò Most of Stein's important works utilize this technique, including the novel The Makings of Americans (1906–08).

Ò The poets generally associated with Cubism are Guillaume Apollinaire, Blaise Cendrars, Jean Cocteau, Max Jacob, André Salmon and Pierre Reverdy.

Ò American poet Kenneth Rexroth explains, Cubism in poetry "is the conscious, deliberate dissociation and recombination of elements into a new artistic entity made self-sufficient by its rigorous architecture.

CUBISM AT PRESENT

Ò Far from being an art movement confined to the annals of art history, Cubism and its legacy continue to inform the work of many contemporary artists.

Cal Poly Pomona university library in

Pomona, California.

Ò The theorist contains the clue as to the reason for cubism's enduring fascination for artists.

Ò Cubism attempts to take representational imagery beyond the mechanically photographic and to move beyond the bounds of traditional single point perspective perceived, as though, by a totally immobile viewer.

BIBILOGRAPHY

• www.artlex.com
• www.wikipedia.com