Cubism was developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque between 1907 and 1914.
Many artists worked in variations of Cubism up until 1925.
Renaissance artists worked perceptually, where the eye rules and the artwork is naturalistic, resembling a window upon the world with depth created by perspective.
This idea was challenged in different ways:
Emotional responses (van Gogh, German Expressionism).
Kandinsky: Abstract paintings expressing his spiritual side.
Fauvism: Liberated color from descriptive use.
Cubism works conceptually. The brain rules, and the Cubist artist is concerned with what he knows. For example, knowing a table has four legs, the artist shows all of them.
Example Artists and Artworks:
Georges Braque: Houses at L'Estaque (1908).
Pablo Picasso: Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907).
Influences
African Art: Picasso and Braque collected African masks.
Masks work conceptually; ideas about the subject are more important than naturalistic depictions, leading to simplified and stylized forms.
Cézanne:
Ideas about numerous viewpoints and the underlying structure of things (cone, cylinder, sphere).
Ideas about the flatness of painting, emphasizing a two-dimensional view.
Cubism Phases
Cézanne Phase (1907 – 1909)
Analytical Phase (1910 – 1911)
Synthetic Phase (1912 – 1914 and later)
Cézanne Phase
Picasso and Braque worked individually.
Cézanne’s influence was taken further, recreating different viewpoints and breaking up forms into sharp, angular shapes.
Considerations:
Scene?
Shape?
Perspective?
Color?
Example Artworks:
Pablo Picasso: The Factory, Horta de Ebro (1909).
Georges Braque: Houses at L’Estaque (1908).
Analytical Phase
Analytical means to break up.
Picasso and Braque worked together; their works are almost indistinguishable.
Themes included still-lives and portraits.
Simultaneity: Multiple viewpoints, showing the subject from all around, introducing the concept of time.
Space: Flattened (foreground vs. background).
Visual investigation emphasized that the canvas is flat.
Shape: Subjects and space are broken up (analytically) into small geometrically shaped areas, known as facets.
Color: Restricted to ochres, greens, and browns to avoid being seduced by color.
Brushstrokes: Broken strokes enrich the surface and distinguish between facets.
Visual clues: Some shape or detail remains to allow recognition of the subject, maintaining a basis in reality.
Canvases: Later, they started using oval-shaped canvases.
Example Artworks:
Pablo Picasso: Girl with a Mandolin (1910).
Pablo Picasso: Ma Jolie (1911-12).
Pablo Picasso: Ambroise Vollard (1910).
Pablo Picasso: The Guitar Player (1910).
Synthetic Phase
Considerations:
Materials?
Space?
Color?
Texture?
Reality?
Picasso and Braque were joined by Juan Gris.
Discovery of collage and paper collé was important; Picasso glued paper onto his canvas.
Art became increasingly abstract and difficult to read but still aimed to maintain a link to reality.
First, pieces of paper were glued to create a free composition before adding ‘reality’ with paint.
Synthesis: Combination of different elements.
The picture plane became less complex.
Areas of color evolved.
A very flat space is presented.
Texture is introduced.
No illusionistic space was created.
Almost exclusively still lives.
Example Artworks:
Pablo Picasso: Violin with Fruit (1913).
Pablo Picasso: Still Life with Chair Caning (1912).
Analyzing the Phases: Examples
Houses at L’Estaque (1908) by Georges Braque
Subject Matter: Landscape scene with trees and simplified houses.
Color: Main colors are green, yellow ochre, and grays; colors are very muted and dull.
Form: Created using dark blending on the corners and sides of the geometric shapes to indicate shadows and create tone.
Space: There isn’t much open space except for the top right corner where it looks like a sliver of the sky can be seen.
Technique: Creating geometric shapes then blending colors into them.
The Portuguese (1911) by Georges Braque
Subject Matter: Collection of geometric shapes and stenciled lettering.
Color: Main colors are yellow ochres and shades of gray/black, very monotone.
Form: Form isn’t very prominent as most of the artwork appears very two-dimensional, except for where black has been shaded in to create depth and tone.
Space: There is open space surrounding the outside of the painting, creating a vignette.
Technique: Writing words with stencils, then painting over and blending the colors.
Newspaper, Bottle, Packet of Tobacco (1914) by Georges Braque
Subject Matter: Shows an abstracted and distorted newspaper, bottle, and packet of tobacco.
Color: The only colors are those from the cardboard the artist has pasted onto the artwork; everything else is shades of white and black.
Form: Tone was created with charcoal blended and shaded to make objects appear curved and to add shadows.
Space: The entire background of the art piece is negative space.
Technique: Collage and paper collé; sticking paper onto canvas. The materials used include charcoal, collage, gouache, and pencil on cardboard. Specifically, stick paper onto a flat surface.