AAYOJAN SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE

HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE- III

SEMINAR REPORT ON

CUBISM

PARUL
PRACHI ASWANI
B.ARCH III YR, V SEMESTER
BATCH ‘07
 “CUBISM”
ORIGIN:
In African art
First described by art critic
Louis vauxcelles; as composed of cubes

DEFINATION:
An early 20TH century school of painting and sculpture, subject portrayed by
geometric forms without realistic detail calm and reflective, stressing
abstract form at the expense of other pictorial elements largely by use of
intersecting often transparent cubes and cones
Inspired by “PICASSO AND BRAQUE”, when emerged in Europe, it met
with harsh criticism because of angular, cubic style. It was a response
against realism in impressionism, describing the irrationality of human
experiences.

VISUAL FUNDAMENTALS BASED ON CONTASRT:

Black and white
Contemporary colors
Dark and light
Positive and negative
Geometric and free spaces
Full and empty
Perforated and solid
Curved and straight
Convex and concave
Positions with contrasting relationships: points, lines, planes
Directions: horizontal, vertical, oblique- diverging and converging
Textures (materials): rough & smooth, shiny & dull, shaded and clear
Distorted & unchanged

TOOLS USED:
Shading
Collage
Plane
Color
Modular
MEANING:
Cubist style emphasized flat, 2-d surface of picture plane, rejecting
traditional perspective foresightening, modeling techniques. Etc.
Cubist painter depicted radically fragmented objects; every aspect of whole
subject, seen simultaneously in single dimension.
Some had dull, mundane colors, while others used dynamically for
enhancing the object’s form

TWO PERIODS:
ANALYTIC CUBISM
 Early cubist (pre-cubist) period till 1912
 Analysis of human forms and still life, process of construction,
creating pictorial rhythm with essential geometric forms: cube, cone,
sphere, cylinder.
 3D images into flat images, with overlapping and interaction
 “sum of destructions” by Pablo Picasso
 Dominated by monochromatic scale colors, grays and browns
 Aim was to produce a “conceptual image of an object, opposed to
perpetual one

Fernand leger- la Pablo Picasso- bottle

SYNTHETIC CUBISM:
 Second after 1912
 Use of more decorative shapes, stenciling, collage, brighter, colors,
emphasize combination or synthesis of forms in picture
 Creation instead of recreation
 Newspapers, tobacco wrappers, musical instruments especially
guitar and violin often used
 Compositions static and centered, lost depth and became abstract
 Simplified forms with no restriction to naturalistic description
 By Picasso, Juan Gris, Braque
PRINCIPLES:
Form reduction to basic geometry
Transparency
Simultaneity
Tension
Dynamism-contrast
Color

CUBISM AND RELATED MOVEMENTS:

 ORPHISM
Pure in color, bright, abstract forms (usually circles) combined
with recognizable objects created by Delaunay

 DADAISM
Sprouted in Zurich (1915) Parisian roots

 SURREALISM
From Dadaism

 FUTURISM
 GERMAN EXPRESSIONISM
 Pablo Picasso- weeping women
LE CORBUSIER:

Oil on canvas

 Flat planer shapes such as guitars

 Main focus: scooped out bowl
 Powerful curve of stylized pages echoed at larger scale
but in as lower key by the guitars
 He introduced many more object types gaining
opportunity to extend the range of contrast
 His first painting “la cheminee”, 1918.simple
composition of cube placed on a table with a book with
newspaper and two ore books

FIVE POINTS OF ARCHITECTURE:

 Free standing supports pilotis
 Roof garden
 Free plan
 Ribbon window
 Freely composed façade
SOCIAL IMPACT:
Influenced by Paul Cezanne, spread by Picasso, Braque, depicted nature
with flowing freedom, repetitive order of structure
 Start of twentieth century
 Broke traditions and consistency in modern art
 Seriousness for new and expressed moments
 A new way of seeing the world with description and interpretation in
2- dimensions

INFLUENCE ON ARCHITECTURE:
 Indirect through derivative artistic movements
 Culminated in doctrines and forms of purism
 Corbusier like cubists perceived a building as a cube and then divided
it horizontally and vertically.
 Cubist interiors with choice of material and color, size and proportion
are determined with the quality being forwarded.
 General development in which cubist derived forms were gradually
simplified and infused with machine age, contained was repeated in
Germany and Russia

ASSEMBLY BUILDING:
Architect: le Corbusier
Location: Chandigarg
View of assembly building, chandigarh Plan of assembly building
AS PER PRINCIPLES:
 Assembly is in square in its plan and volume. The box of prism forms
generative volume for overall composition of assembly.
 Voids integrate within its constitution bringing transparency
 Buildings seem to present a constant changing relationship with each
other and surroundings at every different position a new relationship
is revealed
 Eccentrically introduced due to shifting of circle of the centre pyramid
seems to be slightly tilted towards the hyperbola in the in the diagonal
direction with its roof chamfered seem to face the pyramid. diagonal
tension is created
 Forum established as an invert looking box and exhibits a dynamic,
chaotic nature characterized by violet juxtapositions which are only
possible to experience here. Contrasts with the extrovert nature of
periphery.
 Corbusier designed tapestries as an opportunity for the self expression
and also for the cause of acoustics

HOUSE OF BLACK MADONNA: (Now a museum)

Year: 1911- 1912
Architect: Josef Golar
Location: Prague, Czech Republic
 Baroque architecture in cubist form
 Reinforced concrete skeleton Chicago cubist interiors
 House for a merchant, now as a museum

CHICAGO SCHOOL BUILDINGS:

Year: 1913-1914
Architect: Josef chocol
Location: Prague
 5 floors ,corners, courtyard
 Stucco and wood windows for external finish with masonry
construction
Bibliography:
 20th century world architecture
 Dissertation report on cubism, by priyanka jain (no. 157)
 World. Wikipedia. com