The two artists began a close collaboration that lasted until 1915, in which they worked together to establish Cubism as a distinct art movement. However, over the next year, Braque and Picasso realized that their works from the past few years were becoming increasingly similar. Georges Braque met Picasso in 1907, and initially, he did not like Les Demoiselle d’Avignon. This piece also took influence from the work of Paul Cézanne, whom Picasso had studied intently. This period of Picasso’s artistic career was known as his “African phase” and the work he did here was integral to the Cubist movement. A lot of the influence for this piece came from African tribal art, which Picasso had seen at the Palais du Trocadero, an ethnographic museum in Paris. This piece depicts the fragmented bodies of five prostitutes. Pablo Picasso is often regarded as the father of the Cubism movement, beginning with his painting, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, which he finished in 1907. Still Life with a Guitar (1913) by Juan Gris Juan Gris, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons Deriving its name from the Latin word for a cube, Cubism breaks images and objects down into fragments of squares, cones, spheres, pyramids, and other geometric shapes. There are three distinct periods within the Cubism art movement: Analytical Cubism, Synthetic Cubism, and Orphic Cubism. Rather than representing three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional canvas, cubist artists represent what is called the “fourth dimension.”Īnother distinct feature of the cubist art movement is the hard-edged geometric shapes that make up the compositions. Are you looking at her head-on or from one side?Ĭubist paintings represent a multitude of different perspectives within one picture. If you take Picasso’s Weeping Woman, for example, you can see that you are looking at a woman’s face and that she is crying, but you cannot quite determine the direction from which you are looking at her. The artists then arrange each fragment on the canvas to present the subject of the painting from many different perspectives at the same time. The objects within the scene are fragmented into a multitude of different geometric components, each representing the objects from a slightly different perspective (from the left, the right, the top, or the bottom). The most distinct feature of Cubism is that it completely disregards this single three-dimensional perspective. Still Life before an Open Window, Place Ravignan (1915) by Juan Gris Philadelphia Museum of Art, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons Traditional artists use shading and highlights to mirror the depth of the three-dimensional scene on the two-dimensional canvas. The traditional western style of painting has long attempted to mirror this single perspective perfectly, giving the viewer the impression that they are looking directly at the scene behind the work of art. All of the objects within the frame fit together relative to this single perspective. When you look at a photograph or a scene in real life, you are viewing the scene from a single perspective. The two most distinct features of Cubist paintings are the use of an abstract, “four-dimensional” perspective and the fragmentation of scenes and people into geometric shapes. Cubism was and is a revolutionary movement, and you will find that its influences reach as far as architecture and sculpture. The Cubism art movement remains incredibly influential today, boasting more books on its subject than any other art movement. Fauvism had already laid the groundwork by experimenting with bright and unexpected colors, a great example being the paintings of Franz Marc. Building on the geometric abstraction of the Fauvism movement, Cubism broke many of the rules of traditional western art styles. 4.2 A Cubism Reader: Documents and Criticism, 1906-1914Ĭubism is an art movement that emerged out of a collaboration between Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in France at the turn of the 20th century.4 Recommendations for Books on the Cubism Art Movement.3.1.4 Still Life with Chair Caning (1912).3.1.2 Portrait of Fernande Oliver (1909).3.1.1 Portrait of Ambroise Vollard (1909).3 Six Famous Cubist Artists and Their Work.
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