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Cubism
instead used a multiplicity of viewpoints. The object was then reassembled out
of fragments of these different views, rather like a complex jigsaw puzzle. In this
way, many different views of an object were simultaneously depicted in the
same picture. Such fragmentation and rearrangement of form meant that a
painting could now be regarded less as a kind of window on the world and more
as a physical object on which a subjective response to the world is created.
Cubist works are immediately recognizable due to their flattened, nearly twodimensional appearance; an inclusion of geometric angles, lines, and shapes;
and a fairly neutral colour palette. Instead of creating natural-looking 3-D
objects, Cubist painters offered a brand new set of images reassembled from 2D fragments which showed the objects from several sides simultaneously.
Cubists sought to depict the intellectual idea or form of an object, and its
relationship to others.
Influences
The paintings of older artist Paul Czanne, and sculptures made by artists from
non-European cultures (which Braque and Picasso saw in museums) were hugely
important to the development of cubist style.
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Cubism
Paul Czannes paintings are made up of lots of repeated brush strokes and lots
of small flat shapes (or planes). Czanne said that he wanted his landscapes,
people and objects to look solid. By showing things from different angles he was
able to show that they were three-dimensional. It is this technique that
influenced the younger cubist artists.
The first is by Paul Czanne, the second by cubist Georges Braque. Do you think
that Braques painting was inspired by Czannes technique?
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Braque borrows the same colours and geometric shapes that Czanne uses in
his Mont Sainte-Victoire paintings. But here the similarity ends, for a panoramic,
fixed view of the landscape is not enough for Braque. What Braque does is
subordinate colour in order to attain a geometric structure of overlapping,
shifting, tilted cubes that seem to project out of and into the picture plane, as
though we were watching a 3-D movie. The effect that is created is not that of a
single-point linear perspective, rather, that of a scene changing as it is observed
from various positions. In other words, Braque was trying to record the process
of seeing, and, in order to do so, he has constructed a composite of several
different simultaneous views of the objects to be viewed in one synthetic
moment.
A new museum called the Trocadero, opened in Paris in 1878. It displayed art
and objects from countries and cultures all around the world. Picasso first visited
the museum in 1907 and was amazed by what he saw there. He particularly liked
the sculptures from Africa and from French Polynesia describing them as the
most powerful and most beautiful things the human imagination has ever
produced.
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This landmark painting had broken all of the traditional rules that artists at the
time followed, especially the one that defined art as imitation rather than
creation. Picasso had decided to turn his back on a fixed point of view and
harmonious proportion, concepts that had been religiously practiced since the
Renaissance. Instead, he replaced these with multiple perspectives and
distortion. Furthermore, he incorporated into his painting references to
primitive art, a practice that ran counter to the ceremonious adulation of the
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Cubism
whole continuum of Western art. We can see the faces being inspired from the
African art forms.
Types of cubism
Analytic cubism
Synthetic cubism
Analytic
They appear as a busy interweaving of planes and lines with the subjects
(whether an object, person or landscape) fractured, or broken up, making them
look rather like the surface of a crystal. They are painted using a limited range
of dark colours (mainly blacks, greys). There is very little tonal differentiation
used: you dont see lots of lights and darks. The general tone of works tends to
be muted with a similar dark tone used across the paintings.
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Cubism
Synthetic
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As its name implies, synthetic cubism worked on the premise of assembling out
of separate parts new forms. In this latter phase they were interested in
superimposing fragments one on top of another to simulate walls plastered with
posters as well as stacked newspaper displays at kiosks. The end results were
compositions that were simpler, brighter, and bolder which explored the
individual experiences associated with public spaces and urban recreation and
captured the new sense of simultaneity of diverse experiences-the fusion of
objects, people, machines, noises, light, smells, etc.
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Cubism
Cubism
are seen from above. Theoretically we know more about the teacup because we
see it from two angles at once, which is impossible when a teacup and saucer
are represented in conventional perspective allowing a view from only one angle
at a time.
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Cubism
Conclusion
The Cubist style dominated several decades of the 20th century due to the many
works by Braque, Picasso and Gris, and many other artists involved in the
movement, making it a very large contribution to the development of arts in the
20th century. Ultimately Cubism is less important in its own right - as an artistic
style - and more important as an indicator of what is possible in fine art. It
extended the boundaries of art to include alternatives to traditional single point
perspective; it demonstrated that fine art could be made out of anything, even
scraps of rubbish; and it raised important questions about the nature of reality
in art. It was one of the most important art movements and made significant
contributions to Avant grade art in the early 20th century. In particular, Cubism
influenced many other styles of modern art including Orphism, Futurism,
Vorticism, Suprematism, Constructivism and Expressionism.
By
Pravesh kumar 13505
Vivek ojha
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13803