cubism

Cubism was one of the most influential styles of the twentieth

century. It is generally agreed to have begun around 1907 with 
Picasso’s celebrated painting Demoiselles D’Avignon which
included elements of cubist style. The name ‘cubism’ seems to
have derived from a comment made by the critic Louis
Vauxcelles

Cubism opened up almost infinite new possibilities for the

treatment of visual reality in art and was the starting point for
many later abstract styles including constructivism and neo-
plasticism.

By breaking objects and figures down into distinct areas – or 

planes – the artists aimed to show different viewpoints at the
same time and within the same space and so suggest their three
dimensional form. In doing so they also emphasized the two-
dimensional flatness of the canvas instead of creating the
illusion of depth. This marked a revolutionary break with the
European tradition of creating the illusion of real space from a
fixed viewpoint using devices such as linear perspective, which
had dominated representation from the Renaissance onwards.
TYPES OF CUBISM:
ANALYTICAL VS.
SYNTHETIC

•Cubism can be seen to have developed in two distinct

phases: the initial and more austere analytical cubism,
and a later phase of cubism known as synthetic cubism.
•Analytical cubism ran from 1908–12. Its artworks look
more severe and are made up of an interweaving of
planes and lines in muted tones of blacks, greys and
ochres.
•Synthetic cubism is the later phase of cubism, generally
considered to date from about 1912 to 1914, and
characterised by simpler shapes and brighter colours.
Synthetic cubist works also often include collaged real
elements such as newspapers. The inclusion of real
objects directly in art was the start of one of the most
important ideas in modern art.
Houses at L'Estaque

Artist: Georges Braque

In this painting, Braque shows the

influence of Picasso's Les Demoiselles of
the previous year and the work of Paul
Cézanne. From Cézanne, he adapted the
uni-directional, uniform brushwork, and flat
spacing, while from Picasso he took the
radical simplification of form and use of
geometric shapes to define objects. There
is, for example, no horizon line and no use
of traditional shading to add depth to
objects, so that the houses and the
landscape all seem to overlap and to
occupy the foreground of the picture plane.
As a whole, this work made obvious his
allegiance to Picasso's experiments and
led to their collaboration.
Tea Time

Artist: Jean Metzinger

When this painting was shown at the 1911 Salon d'Automne,

the critic Andre Salmon dubbed it "The Mona Lisa of
Cubism." While Picasso and Braque were dematerializing
figures and objects in their works, Metzinger remained
committed to legibility, reconciling modernity with
classicism, thus Salmon's nickname for the work. Despite
the realism of the painting, like other Cubists, Metzinger
abandons the single point of view in use since the
Renaissance. The female figure and the still life elements
are shown from differing angles as if the artist had
physically moved around the subject to capture it from
different points of view at successive moments in time. The
teacup is shown in both profile and from above, while the
figure of the centrally positioned woman is shown both
straight on and in profile. The painting was reproduced in
Metzinger and Gleizes's book Du Cubisme (1912) and in
Apollinaire's The Cubist Painters (1913). The work became
better known at the time than any work by Picasso or
Braque who had removed themselves from the public by not
exhibiting at the Salon. For most people in the 1910s,
Cubism was associated with artists like Metzinger, rather
than its originators Picasso or Braque.
Ma Jolie

Artist: Pablo Picasso

Picasso ups the ante in this work, pushing his experiments in

new directions. Building on the overlapping, geometric
shapes, Picasso moves further away from the Renaissance
illusion of three-dimensionality and towards abstraction by
reducing color and by increasing the illusion of low-relief
sculpture even further than Braque did in Violin and Palette.
Most significantly, however, Picasso included painted words
on the canvas.

The words, "ma jolie" not only flatten the space further, but
they also liken the painting to a poster because they are
painted in a font reminiscent of that used in advertising. This
is the first time that an artist had so blatantly used elements
of popular culture in a work of high art. This melding of high
and low culture may have been influenced by the late-19th-
century posters of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. Though they
were made as advertisements for various entertainment
venues, Toulouse-Lautrec's posters were appreciated as high
art, perhaps because he was himself also a painter. Further
linking Picasso's work to pop culture and to the everyday, "Ma
Jolie" was also the name of a popular tune at the time as well
as Picasso's nickname for his girlfriend.
Still Life with Chair Caning

Artist: Pablo Picasso

By 1912, Picasso and Braque had exhausted their experiments with monochromatic color and
with the illusion of low-relief sculpture across the surface of the canvas. In Still Life with Chair
Caning, Picasso reintroduces color and goes further into experimentation with multiple
perspectives. The image depicts a tabletop at a café; Picasso shows various objects on the
table from multiple points of view including the knife, pieces of fruit, and wine glass that are in
the top right of the image. Combining both paint and collage, Picasso also incorporates a piece
of oilcloth (a cheap tablecloth) that resembles chair caning to reference to the type of seating
common in a traditional café. The work is playful in that Picasso conveys the transparent
quality of the tabletop by making it appear as if the caning of the chair can be seen through the
glass. The spacing in the image, however, is even flatter than in previous works with no shading
of objects, thus the café table is not depicted illusionistically as if in three dimensions, but
conceptually.

Finally, Picasso paints the words "JOU" that are both the first three letters of the French word
for newspaper (Journal), thus referring both to the act of reading a newspaper at a café (the
folded newspaper itself can be seen on the left), and also spell the first letters of the French
word for "play", signifying the playfulness and experimental quality of the image. Not only is
this the first time that collaged elements were included in a work of high art, but it has been
argued that the bits of collaged newspaper reference the unstable political situation in Europe
and perhaps Picasso's own anarchist tendencies. Even though this work is now synonymous
with Cubist experiments, it was seen by few people at the time because Picasso did not show
his works at public exhibits, but rather displayed his ideas to like-minded (avant-garde)
collaborators.
Maquette for Guitar

Artist: Pablo Picasso

Picasso's experiments with collaged elements encouraged him to

reconsider sculpture as well. Rather than a collage,
however, Maquette for Guitar is an assemblage (or three-dimensional
collage). While traditional sculpture was made up of a mass (or solid)
surrounded by a void, using a material such as wood or marble that
was then shaped by the hand of the artist, Picasso here takes pieces
of cardboard, paper, string, and wire that he then folded, threaded, and
glued together. This is the first time that a sculpture had been
assembled from disparate parts. Rather than being a solid material, it
fluidly integrates mass and its surrounding void. Picasso translated
the Cubist interest in multiple perspectives and geometric form into a
three-dimensional medium.

The work is also groundbreaking in the history of 20th-century

sculpture in part because of Picasso's use of non-art materials that,
like Ma Jolie, challenge the distinction between high art and popular
culture.
Conquest of the Air

Artist: Robert de la Fresnaye

La Fresnaye's colorful and optimistic paintings did much to

popularize Cubism before World War I. In The Conquest of Air,
his most famous work, he depicts himself with his brother
Henri, sitting at a table outdoors. The yellow hot-air balloon in
the distant background likely refers to the oldest balloon race
in the world, the Gordon Bennett cup, which took place
annually from 1906 to 1938, with breaks during the war years.
The race alternated between European cities, but was held first
in Paris in 1906 and again in 1913. A French crew won the
race in 1912, adding to their national honor in this arena as the
French had invented the hot-air balloon in 1783, no doubt
explaining the celebratory French flag in the painting.

La Fresnaye's work shows influence from both traditional

Cubism in its use of geometrical forms and also from
Delaunay's Orphism in its bright color and use of the circle. He
was a member of La Section d'Or Cubists from 1912-1914, but
after the war became a well-known proponent of more
traditional realism.
Electric Prisms

Artist: Sonia Delaunay

Robert and Sonia Delaunay exhibited with the

Salon Cubists, and later founded the Orphism
movement that was heavily influenced by
Cubism. Like all Cubists, they used geometric
forms and flattened perspective to show visual
manipulation of their subject, but the Delaunays
in particular had metaphysical interests in color
and concept, often overlapping multiple scenes
and views to suggest a fourth dimension. This
multiplicity of scenes (or so-called theory of
simultaneity) proposed that events and objects
are "inextricably connected in time and space."
Electric Prisms uses the sphere to represent
this idea of overlap. In the work, different
spheres convene into large concentric circles
that are arranged to depict dynamic movement
of electricity. Orphism was a short-lived
movement but was a key phase in the transition
from Cubism to non-representational art.
Still Life with Open Window, Rue Ravignan

Artist: Juan Gris

Of the Salon Cubists, Juan Gris' work is often considered closest to that of
Picasso and Braque with whom Gris was in close contact beginning in 1911. By
1914, Gris had developed collage techniques in which he pasted elements from
newspapers and magazines onto deconstructed, abstract scenes. His works
were sometimes actual collages, but could also be paintings that resembled
collages as in Still Life with Open Window. In this work Gris combined interior and
exterior views through interlocking elements and subtle shifts in color, including
an intense blue that suffuses the work and, like Synthetic Cubism, reintroduces
color to the Cubist style. A still life in the foreground features traditional elements
such as a book, a carafe, and a bottle of wine on an upturned tabletop. These
objects are refracted through shafts of colored light from the open window that
bring the neighboring houses and trees into the composition; the interior electric
light contrasts with the moonlit scene outside the window. Gris's compositions
were more calculating than those of other Cubists. Every element of the grid-like
composition was refined to produce an interlocking arrangement without
unnecessary detail. Within the grid, Gris balances different areas of the work:
light to dark, monochrome to color, and lamplight inside the room to moonlight
outside. The viewer has a sense of the still life as it exists in its surroundings.
Three Women

Artist: Fernand Léger

In Three Women, Léger updates the traditional theme

of the reclining nude into a modern vocabulary that
combines his various influences from Cubism and
Futurism. The geometric forms of the figures indicate
his Cubist sources, while his reliance on machine-like
imagery is borrowed from Futurism. His pristine and
colorful geometric forms are, however, much different
from the faux low-relief sculptural effects used in
Analytic Cubism. The shapes that make up the figures
and objects, for example, do not overlap in the
foreground, but are used to create an illusion of three-
dimensionality. Thus, the furniture, the bodies of the
women, and the spaces between them are easily
distinguished.

Léger's polished forms can be tied to the interest in

classicism or "return to order" that was widespread in
French art after the chaos of World War I. The
machine-like precision and solidity of the objects and
figures suggest Léger's faith in the modern world and
the hope that technological advances and the
machine age would together remake the world. Léger
was badly injured in WWI, yet nevertheless presents a
cheerful scene that relies on primary colors to convey
his positive mindset about the benefits of modernity
and technology, ultimately expressing his faith in the
future.