Cubism
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| [[Image:Bracelli_2.jpeg|thumb|right|200px|From the ''[[Bizzarie di varie figure]]'' ([[1624]]) by [[Giovanni Battista Braccelli]]]] | [[Image:Bracelli_2.jpeg|thumb|right|200px|From the ''[[Bizzarie di varie figure]]'' ([[1624]]) by [[Giovanni Battista Braccelli]]]] | ||
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| - | '''Cubism''' was a 20th century [[art]] movement that revolutionized [[Europe|European]] [[painting]] and [[sculpture]], and inspired related movements in [[music]] and [[literature]]. It developed as a short but highly significant art movement between about 1907 and 1914 in France. In cubist artworks, objects are broken up, analyzed, and re-assembled in an abstracted form — instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context. Often the surfaces intersect at seemingly random angles presenting no coherent sense of depth. The background and object planes interpenetrate one another to create the ambiguous shallow space characteristic of cubism. | ||
| - | It is clear that the roots of cubism are to be found in the two distinct tendencies of [[Paul Cézanne]]'s later work: firstly to break the painted surface into small multifaceted areas of paint, thereby emphasising the plural viewpoint given by [[binocular vision]], and secondly his interest in simplification of natural forms into [[Platonic solids|Platonic]] cylinders, spheres, pyramids and cubes. | + | '''Cubism''' is an early-20th-century [[avant-garde]] [[art movement]] pioneered by [[Georges Braque]] and [[Pablo Picasso]], joined by [[Jean Metzinger]], [[Albert Gleizes]], [[Robert Delaunay]], [[Henri Le Fauconnier]], [[Fernand Léger]] and [[Juan Gris]] that revolutionized European [[painting]] and [[sculpture]], and inspired related movements in [[music]], [[literature]] and [[architecture]]. Cubism has been considered the most influential art movement of the 20th century. The term is broadly used in association with a wide variety of art produced in Paris ([[Montmartre]], [[Montparnasse]] and [[Puteaux]]) during the 1910s and extending through the 1920s. Variants such as [[Futurism]] and [[Constructivism (art)|Constructivism]] developed in other countries. A primary influence that led to Cubism was the representation of three-dimensional form in the late works of [[Paul Cézanne]], which were displayed in a retrospective at the [[1907 Salon d'Automne]]. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassembled in an abstracted form—instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context. |
| - | The cubists went further than Cézanne; they represented all the surfaces of depicted objects in a single picture plane as if the objects had had all their faces visible at the same time, in the same plane. This new kind of depiction revolutionised the way in which objects could be visualised in painting and art and opened the possibility of a new way of looking at reality. | + | Cubism began between 1907 and 1911. Pablo Picasso's 1907 painting ''[[Les Demoiselles d'Avignon]]'' has often been considered a [[Proto-Cubism|proto-Cubist]] work. Georges Braque's 1908 ''[[Houses at L’Estaque]]'' (and related works) prompted the critic [[Louis Vauxcelles]] to refer to ''[[bizarreries cubiques]]'' (cubic oddities). |
| + | ==Architecture== | ||
| - | The most notable of cubism's small group of active participants were the Spaniards [[Juan Gris]], and [[Pablo Picasso]], accompanied by French artist [[Georges Braque]], then residents of [[Montmartre]], [[Paris]]. These artists were the movement's main innovators. After meeting in 1907 Braque and Picasso in particular began working on the development of Cubism in [[1908]] and worked closely together until the outbreak of [[World War I]] in [[1914]]. | + | The notion that Cubism formed an important link between early-20th-century art and architecture is widely accepted. The historical, theoretical, and socio-political relationships between avant-garde practices in painting, sculpture and architecture had early ramifications in [[France]], [[Germany]], the [[Netherlands]] and [[Czechoslovakia]]. Though there are many points of intersection between Cubism and architecture, only a few direct links between them can be drawn. Most often the connections are made by reference to shared formal characteristics: faceting of form, spatial ambiguity, transparency, and multiplicity. |
| - | French art critic [[Louis Vauxcelles]] first used the term "cubism", or "bizarre cubiques", in 1908 after seeing a picture by Braque. He described it as 'full of little cubes', after which the term quickly gained wide use although the two creators did not initially adopt it. | + | Architectural interest in Cubism centered on the dissolution and reconstitution of three-dimensional form, using simple geometric shapes, juxtaposed without the illusions of classical perspective. Diverse elements could be superimposed, made transparent or penetrate one another, while retaining their spatial relationships. Cubism had become an influential factor in the development of modern architecture from 1912 (''La Maison Cubiste'', by [[Raymond Duchamp-Villon]] and [[André Mare]]) onwards, developing in parallel with architects such as [[Peter Behrens]] and [[Walter Gropius]], with the simplification of building design, the use of materials appropriate to industrial production, and the increased use of glass. |
| - | Cubism was taken up by many artists in [[Montparnasse]] and promoted by art dealer [[Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler]], becoming popular so quickly that by [[1911]] critics were referring to a "cubist school" of artists. However, many of the artists who thought of themselves as cubists went in directions quite different from Braque and Picasso. The [[Puteaux Group]] was a significant offshoot of the Cubist movement, and included artists like [[Guillaume Apollinaire]], [[Robert Delaunay]], [[Marcel Duchamp]], his brother [[Jacques Villon]], and [[Fernand Léger]]. | + | Cubism was relevant to an architecture seeking a style that needed not refer to the past. Thus, what had become a revolution in both painting and sculpture was applied as part of "a profound reorientation towards a changed world". The Cubo-Futurist ideas of [[Filippo Tommaso Marinetti]] influenced attitudes in avant-garde architecture. The influential [[De Stijl]] movement embraced the aesthetic principles of Neo-plasticism developed by [[Piet Mondrian]] under the influence of Cubism in Paris. De Stijl was also linked by [[Gino Severini]] to Cubist theory through the writings of Albert Gleizes. However, the linking of basic geometric forms with inherent beauty and ease of industrial application—which had been prefigured by Marcel Duchamp from 1914—was left to the founders of [[Purism]], Amédée Ozenfant and Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (better known as [[Le Corbusier]],) who exhibited paintings together in Paris and published ''Après le cubisme'' in 1918. Le Corbusier's ambition had been to translate the properties of his own style of Cubism to architecture. Between 1918 and 1922, Le Corbusier concentrated his efforts on Purist theory and painting. In 1922, Le Corbusier and his cousin Jeanneret opened a studio in Paris at 35 rue de Sèvres. His theoretical studies soon advanced into many different architectural projects. |
| - | In 1913 the United States was exposed to cubism and modern European art when [[Jacques Villon]] exhibited seven important and large drypoints at the famous [[Armory Show]] in New York City. Braque and Picasso themselves went through several distinct phases before 1920, and some of these works had been seen in New York prior to the Armory Show, at [[Alfred Stieglitz]]'s "291" gallery. | + | ===La Maison Cubiste (Cubist House)=== |
| - | [[Czechs|Czech]] artists who realized the epochal significance of cubism of Picasso and Braque attempted to extract its components for their own work in all branches of artistic creativity - especially [[painting]] and [[architecture]]. This developed into so-called [[Czech Cubism]] which was an [[avant-garde]] art movement of Czech proponents of cubism active mostly in [[Prague]] from 1910 to 1914. | + | At the 1912 [[Salon d'Automne]] an architectural installation was exhibited that quickly became known as ''Maison Cubiste'' (Cubist House), signed [[Raymond Duchamp-Villon]] and [[André Mare]] along with a group of collaborators. Metzinger and Gleizes in ''[[Du "Cubisme"]]'', written during the assemblage of the "Maison Cubiste", wrote about the autonomous nature of art, stressing the point that decorative considerations should not govern the spirit of art. Decorative work, to them, was the "antithesis of the picture". "The true picture" wrote Metzinger and Gleizes, "bears its ''raison d'être'' within itself. It can be moved from a church to a [[drawing-room]], from a museum to a study. Essentially independent, necessarily complete, it need not immediately satisfy the mind: on the contrary, it should lead it, little by little, towards the fictitious depths in which the coordinative light resides. It does not harmonize with this or that ensemble; it harmonizes with things in general, with the universe: it is an organism...". |
| - | ==Cubism and its ideologies== | + | ==Cubism in other fields== |
| - | Paris before [[World War I]] was a ferment of politics. New [[anarcho-syndicalist]] trade unions and women's rights movements were especially new and vigorous. There were strong movements around patriotic nationalism. Cubism was a particularly varied art movement in its political affiliations, with some sections being broadly anarchist or leftist, while others were strongly aligned with nationalist sentiment. | + | The influence of cubism extended to other artistic fields, outside painting and sculpture. In literature, the written works of [[Gertrude Stein]] employ repetition and repetitive phrases as building blocks in both passages and whole chapters. Most of Stein's important works utilize this technique, including the novel ''The Makings of Americans'' (1906–08) Not only were they the first important patrons of Cubism, [[Gertrude Stein]] and her brother [[Leo Stein|Leo]] were also important influences on Cubism as well. Picasso in turn was an important influence on Stein's writing. |
| - | == Types of Cubism == | + | In the field of American fiction, [[William Faulkner]]'s 1930 novel ''[[As I Lay Dying (novel)|As I Lay Dying]]'' can be read as an interaction with the cubist mode. The novel features narratives of the diverse experiences of 15 characters which, when taken together, produce a single cohesive body. |
| - | There are two main types of cubism, [[analytical cubism]] and [[synthetic cubism]]. Analytic cubism was mainly practiced by Braque, and is very simple, with dark, almost monochromatic colours. Synthetic cubism was much more energetic, and often made use of collage including the use of several two-dimensional materials. This type of cubism was developed by Picasso. During the two artists' time of collaboration from 1907 and ending with the First World War, their styles intermingled and they painted the same subjects, making their works at times closely resemble each other. | + | |
| - | ==Cubism in Other Fields== | + | The poets generally associated with Cubism are [[Guillaume Apollinaire]], [[Blaise Cendrars]], [[Jean Cocteau]], [[Max Jacob]], [[André Salmon]] and [[Pierre Reverdy]]. As American poet [[Kenneth Rexroth]] explains, Cubism in poetry "is the conscious, deliberate dissociation and recombination of elements into a new artistic entity made self-sufficient by its rigorous architecture. This is quite different from the free association of the Surrealists and the combination of unconscious utterance and political nihilism of Dada." Nonetheless, the Cubist poets' influence on both Cubism and the later movements of [[Dada]] and [[Surrealism]] was profound; [[Louis Aragon]], founding member of Surrealism, said that for Breton, Soupault, Éluard and himself, Reverdy was "our immediate elder, the exemplary poet." Though not as well remembered as the Cubist painters, these poets continue to influence and inspire; American poets [[John Ashbery]] and [[Ron Padgett]] have recently produced new translations of [[Pierre Reverdy|Reverdy's]] work. |
| - | + | ||
| - | The poets associated with Cubism are [[Guillaume Apollinaire]], [[Blaise Cendrars]], [[Jean Cocteau]], [[Max Jacob]], [[André Salmon]] and [[Pierre Reverdy]]. As American poet [[Kenneth Rexroth]] explains, Cubism in poetry "is the conscious, deliberate dissociation and recombination of elements into a new artistic entity made self-sufficient by its rigorous architecture. This is quite different from the free association of the Surrealists and the combination of unconscious utterance and political nihilism of Dada." Nonetheless, the Cubist poets' influence on both Cubism and the later movements of [[Dada]] and [[Surrealism]] was profound; [[Louis Aragon]], founding member of Surrealism, said that for Breton, Soupault, Éluard and himself, Reverdy was "our immediate elder, the exemplary poet." Though not as well remembered as the Cubist painters, these poets continue to influence and inspire; American poets [[John Ashbery]] and [[Ron Padgett]] have recently produced new translations of [[Pierre Reverdy|Reverdy's]] work. | + | |
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| - | [[Wallace Stevens]]' "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" is also said to demonstrate how cubism's multiple perspectives can be translated into poetry. | + | |
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| - | In architecture, [[Frank Lloyd Wright]] gained widespread notoriety for his three-dimensional cubist building designs with highly fractured floor plans. | + | |
| + | [[Wallace Stevens]]' "[[Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird]]" is also said to demonstrate how cubism's multiple perspectives can be translated into poetry. | ||
| + | ==See also== | ||
| + | * [[Fourth dimension in art]] | ||
| == See also == | == See also == | ||
Revision as of 18:10, 14 October 2019
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Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement pioneered by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, joined by Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Robert Delaunay, Henri Le Fauconnier, Fernand Léger and Juan Gris that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. Cubism has been considered the most influential art movement of the 20th century. The term is broadly used in association with a wide variety of art produced in Paris (Montmartre, Montparnasse and Puteaux) during the 1910s and extending through the 1920s. Variants such as Futurism and Constructivism developed in other countries. A primary influence that led to Cubism was the representation of three-dimensional form in the late works of Paul Cézanne, which were displayed in a retrospective at the 1907 Salon d'Automne. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassembled in an abstracted form—instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context.
Cubism began between 1907 and 1911. Pablo Picasso's 1907 painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon has often been considered a proto-Cubist work. Georges Braque's 1908 Houses at L’Estaque (and related works) prompted the critic Louis Vauxcelles to refer to bizarreries cubiques (cubic oddities).
Contents |
Architecture
The notion that Cubism formed an important link between early-20th-century art and architecture is widely accepted. The historical, theoretical, and socio-political relationships between avant-garde practices in painting, sculpture and architecture had early ramifications in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Czechoslovakia. Though there are many points of intersection between Cubism and architecture, only a few direct links between them can be drawn. Most often the connections are made by reference to shared formal characteristics: faceting of form, spatial ambiguity, transparency, and multiplicity.
Architectural interest in Cubism centered on the dissolution and reconstitution of three-dimensional form, using simple geometric shapes, juxtaposed without the illusions of classical perspective. Diverse elements could be superimposed, made transparent or penetrate one another, while retaining their spatial relationships. Cubism had become an influential factor in the development of modern architecture from 1912 (La Maison Cubiste, by Raymond Duchamp-Villon and André Mare) onwards, developing in parallel with architects such as Peter Behrens and Walter Gropius, with the simplification of building design, the use of materials appropriate to industrial production, and the increased use of glass.
Cubism was relevant to an architecture seeking a style that needed not refer to the past. Thus, what had become a revolution in both painting and sculpture was applied as part of "a profound reorientation towards a changed world". The Cubo-Futurist ideas of Filippo Tommaso Marinetti influenced attitudes in avant-garde architecture. The influential De Stijl movement embraced the aesthetic principles of Neo-plasticism developed by Piet Mondrian under the influence of Cubism in Paris. De Stijl was also linked by Gino Severini to Cubist theory through the writings of Albert Gleizes. However, the linking of basic geometric forms with inherent beauty and ease of industrial application—which had been prefigured by Marcel Duchamp from 1914—was left to the founders of Purism, Amédée Ozenfant and Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (better known as Le Corbusier,) who exhibited paintings together in Paris and published Après le cubisme in 1918. Le Corbusier's ambition had been to translate the properties of his own style of Cubism to architecture. Between 1918 and 1922, Le Corbusier concentrated his efforts on Purist theory and painting. In 1922, Le Corbusier and his cousin Jeanneret opened a studio in Paris at 35 rue de Sèvres. His theoretical studies soon advanced into many different architectural projects.
La Maison Cubiste (Cubist House)
At the 1912 Salon d'Automne an architectural installation was exhibited that quickly became known as Maison Cubiste (Cubist House), signed Raymond Duchamp-Villon and André Mare along with a group of collaborators. Metzinger and Gleizes in Du "Cubisme", written during the assemblage of the "Maison Cubiste", wrote about the autonomous nature of art, stressing the point that decorative considerations should not govern the spirit of art. Decorative work, to them, was the "antithesis of the picture". "The true picture" wrote Metzinger and Gleizes, "bears its raison d'être within itself. It can be moved from a church to a drawing-room, from a museum to a study. Essentially independent, necessarily complete, it need not immediately satisfy the mind: on the contrary, it should lead it, little by little, towards the fictitious depths in which the coordinative light resides. It does not harmonize with this or that ensemble; it harmonizes with things in general, with the universe: it is an organism...".
Cubism in other fields
The influence of cubism extended to other artistic fields, outside painting and sculpture. In literature, the written works of Gertrude Stein employ repetition and repetitive phrases as building blocks in both passages and whole chapters. Most of Stein's important works utilize this technique, including the novel The Makings of Americans (1906–08) Not only were they the first important patrons of Cubism, Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo were also important influences on Cubism as well. Picasso in turn was an important influence on Stein's writing.
In the field of American fiction, William Faulkner's 1930 novel As I Lay Dying can be read as an interaction with the cubist mode. The novel features narratives of the diverse experiences of 15 characters which, when taken together, produce a single cohesive body.
The poets generally associated with Cubism are Guillaume Apollinaire, Blaise Cendrars, Jean Cocteau, Max Jacob, André Salmon and Pierre Reverdy. As American poet Kenneth Rexroth explains, Cubism in poetry "is the conscious, deliberate dissociation and recombination of elements into a new artistic entity made self-sufficient by its rigorous architecture. This is quite different from the free association of the Surrealists and the combination of unconscious utterance and political nihilism of Dada." Nonetheless, the Cubist poets' influence on both Cubism and the later movements of Dada and Surrealism was profound; Louis Aragon, founding member of Surrealism, said that for Breton, Soupault, Éluard and himself, Reverdy was "our immediate elder, the exemplary poet." Though not as well remembered as the Cubist painters, these poets continue to influence and inspire; American poets John Ashbery and Ron Padgett have recently produced new translations of Reverdy's work.
Wallace Stevens' "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" is also said to demonstrate how cubism's multiple perspectives can be translated into poetry.
See also
See also
- "A Slight Attack of Third Dimentia Brought on by Excessive Study of the Much Talked of Cubist Pictures in the International Exhibition at New York" by John French Sloan in April 1913
- Czech Cubism
- Fine Art Prices
