Cubism 1907-1914 AD512 Critical and Contextual Issues: Art and the 20th Century 2009/10
By Beverley Silvera
Mairead Kell
What we will cover:
Definition of Cubism
The origins of the name Cubism
Key artists and their work
Where does cubism fit in the art timeline and the influences on cubist art
Influences on cubist art
Legacy of the cubist movement
Definition of cubism
The Cubist style emphasized the flat, two- dimensional surface of the picture plane, rejecting the traditional techniques of perspective, foreshortening, modelling, and chiaroscuro and refuting time-honoured theories of art…Cubist Painters were not bound to coping form, texture, colour and space they presented a new reality in painting that depicted radically fragmented objects, whose several sides were seen simultaneously. (The Art History Archive)
Jean Metzinger (1883 – November 3, 1956) was a French painter, critic and poet…influenced by Fauvism and Impressionism…he argues that Cubism is the ‘deceptiveness of vision’. (Encyclopedia of Irish & World Art: 2010http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/index.htm)
Fracturing the picture plane into numerous facets, they were able to show the same object simultaneously from different angles.(Tate Britain)
Origins of the name Cubism
Cubism derived its name from remarks that were made by painter Henri Matisse and the critic Louis Vauxcelles, who derisively described Braque’s 1908 work “Houses at L’Estaque” as composed of cubes.
Timeline
ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS 3000 BC - 331 BC (BCE)
CLASSIC CIVILIZATIONS 800 BC - 337 AD (BCE-CE)
MIDDLE AGES 373 - 1453 AD (CE)
RENAISSANCE 1400 - 1800 AD (CE)
PRE-MODERN 1800 - 1880 AD (CE) Neo-Classicism 1750 - 1880 AD (USA: Federal/Greek Revival) (Canada: Georgian Style) Romanticism 1800 - 1880 AD (Canada: Victorian) Realism 1830's - 1850's AD Impressionism 1870's - 1890's AD
MODERNISM 1880 - 1945 AD (CE) Post Impressionism 1880 - 1900 AD Expressionism 1900 - 1920 AD Fauvism 1900 - 1920 AD Cubism 1907 - 1914 AD Dada 1916 - 1922 AD Bauhaus 1920s - 1940's AD Harlem Renaissance 1920s - 1940's AD Surrealism 1924 1920s - 1940's AD International Style 1920s - 1940's AD
MODERN & POST-MODERN 1945 AD - Present (CE) Abstract Expressionism 1945 - 1960 AD Op Art 1960s AD Pop Art 1960s AD Minimal Art 1960s AD New Realism 1970s - 1980s AD Conceptual Art 1970s - 1980s AD Performance Art 1970s - 1980s AD Neo-Expressionism 1980s - 1990s AD Computer Art 1980s - 1990s AD Post-Modern Classicism 1980s - 1990s AD Victorian Revival 1980s - 1990s AD
Picasso
1881-1973
Born in Spain but moved to Paris in 1900
Father was an art teacher
Attended art lessons from the age of 5
1892 entered the school of fine arts
His father declared he would never paint again after recognising his sons great talent
In 1896 he painted his first large scale
‘academic’ oil painting –
‘The First Communion’
Painter and a sculptor
Picasso didn’t draw in the same style as a typical child, he focused more on geometric lines and shapes to form facial features. This highly systematic approach to art would develop Picasso's remarkable sense of space and geometry and lay a foundation for the ease with which he would later be able to characterize an object with a single line.
The image is not from when he was 5 years old but is just to give an example of the style in which he was drawing.
When he started at The School of Fine Arts (where his dad worked) in Barcelona studying advanced classical art and still life he was already better than the final year students.
Gertrude Stein
Painted in 1905-6
Iberian Art influenced
Picasso’s art style radically
changed
His transition into Cubism
The portrait of Gertrude Stein a friend of Henri Mattisse was painted after Picasso had attended an exhibition at the Louvre in 1906 on Iberian sculpture…Iberia is the ancient name of Spain this was the period where Picasso’s style radically changed…like Matisse who became fascinated in the primitive form…which was described as ‘a lyrical manner of suggesting movement, it was Picasso who tried to ‘imprint on the face a sculptural intensity close to that of a mask’. According to Cezanne the inspiration for Picasso’s transformation into Cubism he was quoted in saying ‘all pre existing criteria of illustration or feeling have to be dissolved and converted into plastic energy’.
From Picasso’s portrait of Gertrude Stein which presented a sculptural element to his style influenced by Iberian sculpture…this iconic painting was a way of treating space and of expressing emotion…therefore this has become one of the most significant painting’s of the 20th century…(Emma Selina, 2007) stated that ‘It has long been acknowledged that Picasso derived considerable inspiration from so called “primitive” cultures. Numerous art historians have enumerated examples on this idea, citing the art of Ancient Egypt, Tahiti, and Africa as influences. The ancient art from Picasso’s propiopaís, or homeland, was no exception. In an interview with Christian Zevros in 1939 Picasso stated that the attribution of his forms to African art in Demoiselles d’Avignon was incorrect and that the real inspiration had come from Iberian sculpture’.
Three women – not truly cubist but significant in the emergence of the style.
Braque
1882 – 1963
Went to a local art school but moved to Paris in 1902 to continue study
In 1907 he met Picasso and within 3 years invented analytical cubism
The only artist to collaborate with Picasso as an equal
In 1961 he became the first living artist to have his work exhibited in the Louvre
‘Monsieur Braque is a very daring young man. The bewildering example of Picasso and Derain has emboldened him. Perhaps, too, the style of Cezanne and reminiscences of the static art of the Egyiptians have obsessed him disproportionately. He constructs deformed metallic men, terribly simplified. He despises form, reduces everything, places and figures and houses, to geometrical schemas, to cubes. He is honest.’ Louis vauxcelles
From 1907 they worked so closely together, exploring the planes and facets of the same subjects matter, that some of their work is said to appear almost identical.
Georges Braque developed his painting skills while working for his father, a house decorator. He moved to Paris in 1900 to study where he was drawn to the work of the Fauve artists, including Matisse, Derain and Dufy, as well as the late landscapes of Cézanne. Meeting Picasso marked a huge turning point in Braque's development and together they evolved as leaders of Cubism. After a brief interlude in which he was called up to fight in the First World War, Braque's style developed in the direction he was to follow for the rest of his life. In establishing the principle that a work of art should be autonomous and not merely imitate nature.
Juan Gris
1887-1927
A Spanish-born French painter
Attended the School of Arts and Manufacturing in Madrid
Left Madrid in 1906 and moved to Paris
Became friends with Picasso and Braque
First Cubist painting in 1912
He is called the Third Musketeer of Cubism, and actually pushed Cubism further until his untimely death on May 11th 1927 at the age of 39
Allocated Legacy of Cubism
Jacob Lawrence
1917-2000
African-American Harlem Renaissance Expressionist
Born in Atlantic City
1924 moved to Harlem, New York
with his mother and siblings
Trained as a painter
Depicted life in Harlem and America
First black artist to be represented in the
Museum Of Modern Art, New York
References
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Blistene, B. (2001) A History of 20th Century Art. France: BeauxArts
Cavallaro, D (2000) Art for Beginners. London: Writers and Readers, Inc
Cezanne, P (1899-1906)
Large Bathers [Oil on canvas]
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Clark, Judith (2002) The Illustrated History Of Art. Leicester: Quintet Publishing Ltd.
Cooper, D. (1971) The Cubist Epoch. Phaidon Publishers: New York
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(Accessed:
12th February 2009)
Davila, Jane. (2007) Jacob Lawrence.
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How the Ancient Greeks revolutionized Iberian sculpture and shaped modern art
http://emmatipping.blogspot.com/
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Impression: Sunrise [Oil on canvas]
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