CUBISM
Part 2
CONTEXT: In the four decades from 1870-1910, western society witnessed more technological progress than in the previous four centuries. During this period, inventions such as photography, cinematography, sound recording, the telephone, the automobile and the airplane heralded the dawn of a new age. The problem for artists at this time was how to reflect the modernity of the era using the tired and trusted traditions that had served art for the last four centuries. Photography had begun to replace painting as the tool for documenting the age and for artists to sit illustrating cars, planes and images of the new technologies was not exactly rising to the challenge.
WHY IS CUBISM IMPORTANT? Artists needed a more radical approach - a 'new way of seeing' that expanded the possibilities of art in the same way that technology was extending the boundaries of communication and travel. This new way of seeing was called Cubism - the first abstract style of modern art.
KEY IDEAS • The artists abandoned perspective, which had been used to depict space since the Renaissance, and they also turned away from the realistic modeling of figures. • Cubists explored open form, piercing figures and objects by letting the space flow through them, blending background into foreground, and showing objects from various angles. Some historians have argued that these innovations represent a response to the changing experience of space, movement, and time in the modern world. This first phase of the movement was called Analytic Cubism.
KEY IDEAS • In the second phase of Cubism, Synthetic Cubists explored the use of non-art materials as abstract signs. Their use of newspaper would lead later historians to argue that, instead of being concerned above all with form, the artists were also acutely aware of current events, particularly WWI. • Cubism paved the way for non-representational art by putting new emphasis on the unity between a depicted scene and the surface of the canvas. These experiments would be taken up by the likes of Piet Mondrian, who continued to explore their use of the grid, abstract system of signs, and shallow space.
KEY IDEAS The Cubists saw the limitations of perspective as an obstacle to progress. The fact that a picture drawn in perspective could only work from one viewpoint restricted their options. As the image was drawn from a fixed position, the result was frozen, like a snapshot, but the Cubists wanted to make pictures that reached beyond the rigid geometry of perspective. They wanted to introduce the idea of 'relativity' - how the artist perceived and selected elements from the subject, fusing both their observations and memories into the one concentrated image. To do this the Cubists examined the way that we see.
The movement was conceived as 'a new way of representing the world', and integrated influences such as African art, as well as new theories on the nature of reality, such as Einstein's Theory Of Relativity. Cubism is often divided into two phases – The Analytic Phase (1907-12) The Synthetic Phase (1913 through the 1920s).
ANALYTICAL CUBISM It is termed analytical cubism because of its structured dissection of the subject, viewpoint-by-viewpoint, resulting in a fragmentary image of multiple viewpoints and overlapping planes. Other distinguishing features of analytical cubism were a simplified palette of colours, so the viewer was not distracted from the structure of the form, and the density of the image at the centre of the canvas.
ANALYTICAL CUBISM It is termed analytical cubism because of its structured dissection of the subject, viewpoint-by-viewpoint, resulting in a fragmentary image of multiple viewpoints and overlapping planes. Other distinguishing features of analytical cubism were a simplified palette of colours, so the viewer was not distracted from the structure of the form, and the density of the image at the centre of the canvas. The Analytic Phase attempted to show objects as the mind, not the eye, perceives them.
ANALYTICAL CUBISM Colour was almost non-existent except for the cases when the artists used monochromatic schemes that included blue, grey and ochre. Analytic Cubists focused more on forms like spheres, the cylinder and the cone to represent the natural world. Both artists took apart objects and “analyzed” them in terms of their shapes. Picasso and Braque’s paintings at this time have many similarities.
Georges Braque ‘Violin & Pitcher’ 1910 (oil on canvas)
Pablo Picasso ‘Le Guitariste‘ 1910 (oil on canvas)
SYNTHETIC CUBISM Synthetic cubism began when the artists started adding textures and patterns to their paintings, experimenting with collage using newspaper print and patterned paper. Analytical cubism was about breaking down an object (like a bottle) viewpoint-by-viewpoint, into a fragmentary image; whereas synthetic cubism was about flattening out the image and sweeping away the last traces of allusion to threedimensional space. Picasso’s papier collés are a good example of synthetic cubism.
SYNTHETIC CUBISM The Synthetic phase featured works that were composed of fewer and simpler forms, in brighter colours. Lively reds, greens, blues, and yellows gave great emphasis to this newer work. Characterized by the introduction of different surfaces, textures, papier colle, collage elements and a great variety of merged subject matter. This was the beginning of collage materials introduced as an important ingredient of fine art works. They regularly used passage, which is when overlapping planes share a single colour. Rather than paint flat depictions of paper, they incorporated real pieces of paper and real scores of music replaced drawn musical notation. The artists could also be found to utilize everything from fragments of newspaper and playing cards to cigarette packs and advertisements in their work.
INFLUENCE ON OTHER ARTISTS/MOVEMENTS: Cubism allowed artists to see beyond the traditional art of Europe and into more abstract forms. Cubism was born in France but emigrated across Europe and integrated with the artistic consciousness of several countries. It emerged as Futurism in Italy (illustrated left), Vorticism in England, Suprematism and Constructivism in Russia, and Expressionism in Germany.
INFLUENCE ON OTHER ARTISTS/MOVEMENTS: Cubist design frequently shows up in illustration and graphic design applications, such as logos, posters and media illustrations. Because Cubism is emblematic of “classical modernism�, it appears to our eyes both retro and modern. Its look is bold and eye-catching, both dimensional and flat. The geometric composition common in Cubism lends itself well to re-creation in design programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
INFLUENCE ON OTHER ARTISTS/MOVEMENTS:
Runway fashion often features exaggerated, outlandish structural elements drawn from Cubism that seem to reconfigure the model’s form into a dizzying arrangement of planes. More wearable street styles also incorporate cubism in the form of irregular geometric patterns which visually fracture the garment’s shape.
INFLUENCE ON OTHER ARTISTS/MOVEMENTS:
Even architects, who work in three dimensions, incorporate cubist styles. The bold look of monochromatic colour, hard edges, angled planes and dimensional facades is a staple of modern architectural design, and is even seen in such everyday structures as office buildings and private homes.Â