Picasso and Braque: Cubism - Essay Example

?Picasso and Braque: Cubism An artistic movement, started with an inspiration of Cezanne " Treat nature by showing a cylinder, a sphere, and a cone in which all is put in perspective. Each side has an object, a plan to have a central point ….." (direct translation). It starts during Picasso's Black Period until 1914. There are three sub-movements: Cezanne's cubism (1908-1909), Analytical Cubism (1910-1912) finishing with a Synthetical Cubism. The principle painters were Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. They were good friends. Braque had had far less training than Picasso. He is quoted as saying " I couldn't portray a woman in all her natural loveliness . . . I haven't the skill. No one has. I must, therefore, create a new sort of beauty, the beauty that appears to me in terms of volume, of line, of mass, of weight, and through that beauty interpret my subjective impression. Nature is a mere pretext for a decorative composition, plus sentiment. It suggests emotion, and I translate that emotion into art. I want to expose the absolute, and not merely the factitious woman.(Braque 1910). They both were relatively alienated from society and used cubism to express their inner most secretive obsessive desires: music and sexual lust. ( Fry 297) "Braque's preoccupation with music and musical instruments is evident in the frequency of their appearance in his works, as frequent as that of women and of guitars or violins as alter egos of women in Picasso.(Fry 298) The painting which will be compared will show these characteristics. Three paintings will be compared of Georges Braque to those of Pablo Picasso to show their different use of "cubism" as well as their similarities. Black period 1906-1907 'Epoque negre "African Art" was significant in proving to himself that he could break away from classism. . (Warncke, black-period) As he always said, art was an experience, he had found some ancient artifacts that he used in Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. The faces of the left are based on the Iberian art and on the right on African art which was in his possession..(A friend had taken them from the Louvre) He wanted to use African art as a means to be able to innovate as Van Gogh used Japanese art. He was fascinated by the African art at the Trocadero Museum in Paris. His use of Cubism represented the geometrical forms. The concept of images remained. It is most fascinating in seeing the progress from his blue period two years before with his distinct bodies and the harsh angles of the bodies and faces. Before his blue period he depended on romanticism. In his blue period, his biggest influence was El Greco and the grief of having lost his good friend. In his rose period, he started to show his own style which was completely manifested in his Black period. His black period gained him followers who became interested in his abstract style of painting. George Braque went from Matisse and came to study with Picasso. This was the being of his new period . Some call it the beginning of Cezanne's cubism because of the monochrome, the geometrical forms and the visual paintings of images. It was the breakthrough from classism once and for all. Cubism: 1907 -1915 the birth of abstract art. His Demoiselles d'Avignon had several angles in which the viewer could see. "The language of Cubism was to see an object independently from different viewpoints" (Warncke 2004) When George Braque associated himself with Picasso he used cubism to show natural objects: technique of faceting. Braque's Nude 1907-1908 would be his equivalent of his first attempt at cubism. He shows the modest use of colors as he uses 'the roses and blue hues of Picasso. Her forms are not as welled defined. It shows his influence of Cezanne. In his later works, he takes the form and turns them into geometrical shapes. His Maison a l'Estaque 1908 shows his fascination with geometrical forms and the need to show a background and a foreground in the painting. "His treatment of space and time is directly related to the classical tradition". (Fry 298) The concept of background and foreground with space and time will change with each development of the movement. This painting was before he started working with Picasso. He also had been influence by Cezanne. They realized that if they became associates they would be able to advance this form of art. In 1914, he did another rendition of the Maison a L'Estaque but called it Cubiste. The lines are harsh, the geometrical shapes are more pronounced, the hues are the same but no longer pastel. The viewer sees the outline drawings of each house and tree. His lighting is more pronounced. The background of the painting is deap and never ending. He made a third drawing in 1908 in which the colors were from colored pencils; Whereas the last painting was deep, this painting was going upward. All three paintings were of the same subject in the same tones. A Violin and Palette 1909-1910, shows Braque's music motif. He keeps to the geometric shapes without losing the viewer. The violin is still visible though distorted. The musical notes are visible and one can even imagine seeing the player. The colors are exquisite. His goal was to use geometrical forms without losing the subject matter. This represents analytical cubism in which Braque wished to stay but he was so heavily influenced by Picasso that he often painted worked that were indiscernible as to who painted them. He preferred keeping an image in the painting where Picasso enjoyed moving to the Synthetic Cubism. His use of the music motif highly influenced the Franco-Spanish artist, Arman. A Portrait of Georges Braque 1910 shows Picasso in the analytical cubism. He has kept to similar brown hues of color and the geometrical shapes. The portrait can be seen of his friend. His geometrical shapes are more blended then Braque's. His face has almost become three dimensional in minute detail. Nude, I love Eva 1912, shows a definite change in Cubism. The content has taken a more important place than the subject matter. Only upon important observance, can one see the face, eyes and lips of a woman. The geometrical forms: cylinders, cones, triangles are numerous. The colors are important as they show the beauty and purity of Eve. The basic color is white. We know it is Picasso's because of the maturity of the portrait and the lack of subject matter. Man with a Guitar 1911, shows more geometrical variations then the actual musical instrument. I do not see Braque's beauty that I did in his earlier works. It is as though he is having a hard time with the analytical cubism as he wants to show his subject matter but he doesn't know how. In other paintings of his, he loses all perspective, and depth. I am thinking of the Portuguese Series of the same time period. Musician 1917-1918 shows a perfect rendition of synthetic cubism. The colors are vibrant; the material uses are not just paint. He has achieved the cubism effect of looking at it from all angles. It no longer just looks like a painting on a wall. Braque was successful in this period. The Harlequin 1915 oil on canvas was an old theme of Picasso's from his Rose Period (1905-1907). This portrait is amazing as it gives the effect of glued pieces of different types of paper when it is just an oil painting. He has the multi-dimensional effect but it is going into the painting. His colors are wonderful. I feel as though I want to pull out the back piece of red paper. To explain the three types of cubism without having the visual examples has been difficult. The paintings chosen by the writer have been done so as to illustrate the three sub-movements. The two artists, Picasso and Braque, moved art from classism to avant-garde. They worked so closely together that Picasso was quoted as saying that even he could not tell the difference between their work. Though the movement was short ended because of the start of World War I, the use of cubism has continued until today. It is used is statutes, monuments, architecture and paintings. When Braque came back after the War, he decided to work independently. Picasso painted other styles and forms. He did not rely only on cubism. Word Count: 1 405 Works Cited Art-Authority, Collection of 50 000 works of art from museums all over the world (iTunes) Braque, Georges Personal Statement 1910 Architectural record New York 1923 Accessed: 02 May 2011 http://www.mcah.columbia.edu/arthumanities/pdfs/arthum_picasso_reader.pdf Fry Edward, Cubism and Reflexivity, Art Journal, 47:4 Revising Cubism 1988, pp 296-310 Accessed: 02 May 2011 http://www.jstor.org/stable/776980 Warncke, Carsten-Peter, Pablo Picasso: 1881-1973, 2004 Taschen Web: 01 May 2011 www.pablo-picasso.paintings.name Read More