Cubism
What is cubism?
Cubism is a visual art style that started in the early twentieth century. Cubism is a movement in
art that started in France in 1907. The word “cubism” comes from Louis Vauxcelles, a French art
critic. Louis Vauxcelles came up with this word when he saw houses in Braque’s painting called
L’Estaque.
Braque, Georges. L’ Estaque. 1886. Oil on Canvas. The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago.
The painting above has mainly neutral colors and the houses have a volume. Louis Vauxcelles
called the geometric shapes in the painting “cubes” and thats where the word cubism comes
from.
The creators of cubism are Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Pablo Picasso is a Spanish
painter that lived during 1881-1973. Georges Braque is a French painter that lived during
1882-1963. Picasso and Georges painted figures such as cubes, spheres, cylinders, cones
and other geometric shapes. There were two groups of cubist called the “Salon Cubist” and
the “Gallery Cubist”. The Gallery cubists were Picasso and Braque and they were known as
the Salon cubists because their exhibitions were supported and contracted with Daniel-Henri
Kahnweiler's gallery. The Salon cubists exhibitions were supported by public funds.
How did cubism start?
In 1907, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque were in Paris. Both of the painters went to ateliers
in Paris and exchanged ideas and new artistic inventions. They rejected the concept of
traditional Western art. Both, Picasso and Braque were looking for different ways to draw two
dimensional surfaces. Both of the artists were bored of the traditional artwork and started
experimenting new ideas which formed cubism.
Which artists started cubism?
There are two artists who were believed that started cubism. One of them is Pablo Picasso
painting called “Les Demoiselles d'Avignon”. This painting has every characteristics of cubism
such as geometricity, simultaneity and passage. The other artist is Georges Braque with his
series of painting called L'Estaque. Those series of painting inspired cubism because it had
the style of cubism. However Picasso’s painting actually had the principles of cubism. Some
art historians still discuss whether Picasso or Braque started cubism.
Cubist artists:
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso is a Spanish painter, sculptor, engraver and ceramist. He is born in Málaga,
Spain in 1881 and went to Barcelona and Madrid to study art. He moved to Paris after and
founded cubism with Georges Braque. His paintings were already better than his fathers when
he was 13 because his father started teaching him drawing in the early childhood. Picasso didn’t
like the usual and the old style of art. He once wrote to his friend “They just go and on about the
same old stuff: Velazquez for painting, Michelangelo for sculpture.” when he was studying in the
Academy of San Fernando. He didn’t like the usual and “old stuff” instead he drew gypsies,
beggars, prostitutes that he observed while wandering in the city. His uninterest in the usual art
helped him develop the idea of cubism. He is a very influential artist because he found a new art
style (cubism) and he is very well known worldwide.
Georges Braque
Georges Braque was born in 1882 in Argenteuil. He is a French painter born in a family with
amateur artists. He went to a French school and he also went to the military for one year. After
he got back from the military, he decided to continue his painting career. Braque spend his
childhood in Normandy where it was full of impressionists. Monet influenced his first painting. In
1907, he had his first exhibition where he sold his paintings in Paris. His work focused on
drawing objects from different perspective. It also focused on color, line and texture. After he
drew the Large Nude in 1908, he became close friends with Picasso. This is when cubism had
started to begin.
Braque, Georges. Large Nude. Digital image. The Art History Archive. N.p., n.d. Web. 19 Nov.
2012
• What makes a work Cubist?
A work of art is considered a cubist work when it is two dimensional and has more than one
perspective on one object. Arbitrary shading between different shapes and when you look at the
work overall, it has an unrealistic sense of depth. Cubist work is not realistic instead it is creating
new shapes from different objects. It is looking at an object from different views and it allows
artists see non real shapes in an object. Most cubist work has neutral colors such as brown,
grey and green.
• What are the two styles of Cubism, and how do they differ?
Cubism started out first as “Analytical Cubism”. Analytical cubism was between 1907-1912.
Analytical cubism started out as looking at an object from multiple vanishing points. Analytical
cubism used very limited color schemes. Analytical cubism used neutral colors such as brown,
green, greys etc. The artists first analyzed the object and started drawing it from different points
of views and laid the different points of views of the same object on top of each other. Often
times this caused confusion while drawing since you draw on top of something but at the same
time it causes a revolutionary idea. In the renaissance the style of drawing was very different.
The artists in the renaissance drew from one perspective and drew very realistic. The realistic
drawing in the Renaissance became the generalization of art. However, cubism is not realistic
and it is also not drawn from one perspective.
Picasso introduced the second style of cubism called the “synthetic cubism”. Picasso created
his first synthetic work in 1912 called the “Still Life with mandolin and Guitar”. In synthetic
cubism, there were more colors than neutral colors. There are more bright colors and the colors
are not very limited. Synthetic cubism had collages and patterns which Analytical cubism did not
have. In synthetic cubism, artists added things like newspaper to their paintings and other
material which caused a difference in the texture. Artists used more bold lines and colors in their
paintings. The bold lines and colors in the paintings showed the real and and unreal aspects of
the painting.
Picasso, Pablo. Still Life with Mandolin and Guitar. 1924. Oil on Canvas. Museum of Modern
Art, New York.
• How did Cubism revolutionize the art world?
Cubism was a very important movement because it changed the style of art. In Renaissance, so
before cubism, everything was very realistic and very traditional. Cubism was a start of thinking
in an unrealistic way. Since it causes thinking unrealistic, it also caused surrealism and pop art.
Cubism had a big effect on the artists and on art because it made cause different styles of art in
the world. The main reason why cubism is revolutionary is because it broke the rules of the
Renaissance time of being realistic. Cubism made people think more about their paintings
because they had the chance to think and change what they see. Renaissance was about
drawing what you see with your eyes not your brain. However, cubism is both drawing what you
see with your eyes and brain. There are still artists that use cubism in this time.
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