Cubism1907-c. 1925

Cubism - Introduction

In 1904 an exhibition of Cézanne’s work was held in Paris. The simple geometric shapes in his work had an enormous impact on young artists like Picasso, who was also fascinated by prehistoric art and the savage masks of Africa. *

Cubism was seen as a reaction against the established way of looking at things, and, at first, was an attempt to bring order and construction back into art through the reduction of natural forms to a definite geometric basis – an extension of certain aspects of Cézanne’s art.

Later it developed into geometric type compositions of lines and flat shapes on plain grounds without consideration for realistic representation, the effects of natural light and atmosphere, or emotional content.

Cubism was a protest against sentimentality and the expressionistic treatment of objects in nature.

Cubism was a desire to introduce untried ways of depicting people and things within the restrictive limits of painting.

Cubism constituted the most revolutionary change in outlook and painting style since the revolution.

Cubism - Introduction * Picasso’s Les demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907 is a brothel scene

depicting women with faceted, angular bodies. Two figures have faces like African masks andthree heads show a Spanish influence against a backdrop

without perspective.The work was bound to create a sensation. It is now considered one of the most important paintings of modern art.

It inspired (and shocked), Georges Braque, who took a keen interest in Cézanne’s painting style, to abandon perspective and build up shapes using colour, lightingeach part of the composition separately.

These paintings, with no illusion of depth, were a forerunner to

analytical cubism (1910-12)

Development of Cubism From 1909 Picasso and Braque

worked together, choosing still life and portraits as their subjects, They eliminated bright colours so that the paintings became tonal, mainly greys, browns and ochres. They worked so closely together it was sometimes difficult to tell their works apart.

Viewing objects from all sides and overlapping the broken images created by angular patterns that often made the subject difficult to identify.

« Pablo Picasso

Portrait of Ambrose Vollard, 1909-10

Cubism Cubism was not a very accurate title, because the

aim was not to make cubic constructions – the compositions were flat

Cubism had three main periods: the Proto-Cubist Period, Analytical Cubism, and Synthetic Cubism.

In the Proto- Cubist period (1907-1909) which was the evolving stage of Cubism, the Cubists work reflected the influence of Cézanne’s form, structure and pattern, and it showed only the essential features as simple geometric shapes.

Georges Braque » Houses at L’Estaque, 1908.

Cubism 2ndstage

In Analytical Cubism, the second stage between 1909 and 1912, Cubist artists analysed, dissected and selected parts of items and rearranged the representations of them into geometric-like, tranquil, dull-coloured compositions. Favoured elements in the compositions were parts of musical instruments, bottles, fruit and human figures.

The Egyptians represented the Subject from more than one viewpoint, the renaissance artists use one viewpoint and the Cubists reverted to multi-viewpoints.

Viewing objects from all sides and overlapping the broken images created angular patterns that often made the subject difficult to identify.

Georges Braque, Violin and Palette, 1909»

Cubism 3rdstage

Synthetic Cubism (1912-25) began with the use of imaginative or artificial (synthetic) shapes that were manipulated and composed to look like objects – the opposite approach to Analytical Cubism.

Pieces of coloured paper, wall-paper, newspaper, cloth, imitation wood grain and the like, were ‘collaged’ onto the picture. The colours became brighter and the background less complex.

Since first introduced by Picasso and Braque, this style of two dimensional representation in painting has been of major Importance.

Pablo Piccaso Three Musicians, 1923