Cubism
was
an art style that developed from 1907 in France. Cubist paintings are often very difficult to
understand. The artist takes a subject
and then deconstructs it.
Picasso
was the first cubist. The first cubist painting
he did was Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
– the figures have been simplified to an extreme degree. This painting took his art off in a bold new
direction.
The work was not like by the critics or even other
artists. There was one other artist,
though, who saw the potential in cubism – Georges
Braque – who then worked in partnership with Picasso to develop
cubism. Braque was an ex-fauvist.
This painting is Houses
at L'Estaque by Braque – it is a landscape simplified into geometric shapes. The painter Matisse
didn't think much of it and said that it was just made up of small cubes – and this
is how Cubism got its name!
Cubism wasn't actually a very good name for it –
because the art style is not about showing three dimensions (like cubes) but
was very much two dimensional.
This painting is Violin
and Palette done in 1909 by Braque. You
can see the violin at the bottom and an artist's palette at the top. The violin is broken up into several pieces
and then loosely re-assembled. You can
see it from several angles all at once.
All this change in art was happening around the same
time that Einstein came up with the Theory of Relativity. The theory and existence of a fourth
dimension was well known to Picasso and Braque and was the subject of much
debate.
Other artists picked up on the new style – like Juan
Gris. The pic above is of his Still Life with Flowers (1912) – this painting
has a guitar in it that is almost unrecognisable.
Cubism was an important waypoint on the way to Abstract
Art.
To help viewers understand his work Picasso started to
add words to it – this was new territory for the art world. Amazing that it was so new given how
important words are in the works of so many modern artists! The painting above is Ma Jolie (1911-12) by Picasso.
Picasso and Braque then started incorporating mass
manufactured items into their work – a sort of collage approach. Yet another major innovation!
And then they went to 3 dimensional collage – see Guitar (1912)
Cubism only lasted about a decade but its influence on
subsequent art was just immense.
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