Cubism

“Everything in nature takes its form from the sphere, the cone,

and the cylinder.”-Cezanne

Definition

• Cubism: a style of painting and sculpture developed in the early 20th century, characterized chiefly by an emphasis on formal structure, the reduction of natural forms to their geometrical equivalents, and the organization of the planes of a represented object independently of representational requirements.

Quick Facts

First abstract art style Radical change of renaissance norms of

painting Depicted subjects from multiple viewpoints

or angles then reassembling it in abstract form.

Two major phases: analytical and synthetic

African Influence

• Formal simplification and expressive power

• Based from African and Iberian sculptures

• Used earth tones similar to the African masks

• Large inspiration for Picasso

Cezanne influence

• Taught to break away from technique and concentrate on color and power of single brush stroke

• Disengages with detail and simplified a painting

Key Artists

• Main Artists:• Pablo Picasso• George Braque• Juan Gris

Pablo Picasso

• 1881-1973• Spanish painter and

sculptor

George Braque

• 1882-1963• Influenced by Latisse

and the Fauves, then Cezanne and Picasso

• Worked closely with Picasso

• Co-creator of Cubism

Juan Gris

• 1887-1927• Didn’t invent, but was

a large contributor to cubism

• Was not as popular as Braque or Picasso

• More theoretical painter than others

Artists to also Note

• Ferdinand Leger

• Robert Delaunay

• Raymond Duchamp-Villon

• Marcel Duchamp

• Jacques Villon

• Jacques Lipchitz

Protocubism

• 1906

• Beginning experiments to the start of cubism

• Lacked spatial depth in order to make images look flatter

• Intentional distortion of subjects

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, Picasso, 1907

House at L’Estaque, Braque, 1908

Analytical Cubism

• 1907-1911

• Flatter, more consistent and more ambiguous

• Color Scheme; monochromatic (tan, brown, gray, cream, green, and blue)

• Emphasis on pictorial structure, not color

• Portrait of Ambrose Vollard

• Picasso• 1909

• Girl with Mandolin• Picasso• 1910

• Mandora• Braque• 1909

• The Portuguese• Braque• 1911

• Bread and Fruit Dish• Picasso• 1909

• Three Women• Picasso• 1913

Synthetic Cubism

• 1912-1919• More colorful than analytical and incorporated

various extraneous materials• Collages and papier colles• Included a number of daily household objects• Instead of breaking down an object into

fragments and then reassembling them, the image was being built up from new elements and shapes

• Fruit Dish and Glass• Braque• 1912

Still Life with Chair Caning, Picasso, 1912

• The Guitar• Picasso• 1913

Three Musicians, Picasso, 1921

Bottle, Newspaper, Pipe & Glass, Braque, 1913

• Guitar and Glasses• Juan Gris• 1912

Pears and Grapes on a Table, Gris, 1913

Cubist Literature

• Cubism was adapted into literature especially poetry, by the likes of Guillaune Apollinaire, Max Jacob, Gertrude Stein, and Pierre Reverdy

• It was destructive of grammar, strange or absent punctuation, free verse, etc.

On the coast of Texas Between Mobile and Galveston there isA great big garden overgrown with roses It also contains a villa Which is one great rose Often a woman walks In the garden all alone And when I pass on the lime-tree-bordered roadWe look at each other Since this woman belongs to the Mennonite sect Her rose trees have no buds and her clothes no buttons There are two missing from my jacket This lady and I are almost of the same religion

Annie by Guillaune Apollinaire

Cubism’s Effect

• Expressionists

• Futurists

• Dada

• Constructivism

• Orphism