Analytical and synthetic cubism - Essay Example

Cubism was founded by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, inspired by the artworks in African Sculpture, by painters Paul Czanne (French, 1839-1906) and Georges Seurat (French, 1859-1891), and by Fauves. Cubism was later divided into two branches, Analytical Cubism and Synthetic Cubism. Analytical Cubism is the first development phase of Cubism and was developed between 1908 and 1912. The Analytical phase consisted of analyzing the object and then breaking it down into basic geometric forms in the canvas.1 Synthetic Cubism, the second and more decorative phase of Cubism started after the Analytical phase in 1912. This phase was less complex than its predecessor phase. Differences between Analytical and Synthetic Cubism During Analytical Cubism the language of Cubism had become flatter, consistent, but also more ambiguous. In his portrait of Ambroise Vollard, Picasso fragmented a human figure into a number transparent geometric planes intersecting each other at a variety of angles, none of these planes giving the illusion of three dimensionality.2 In this work, Picasso merged figure and environment, solid and void, background and foreground. "Synthetic Cubism was in part a reaction against the abstract tendency of the Analytical phase."3 With his Still Life with Chair Caning' (1912, Muse Picasso, Paris, France) Picasso invented a technique called collage (from the French word coller' meaning "to glue"). This started the second phase of Cubism known as Synthetic Cubism. Pasting pieces of paper or other material to the surface of painting is Collage. In his painting, Picasso used a piece of oilcloth. Soon both Picasso and Braque began using newspapers, wallpapers, advertising in their paintings implying that art can be created with anything and not just brushes and paint.2 During Analytical Cubism, the works produced by Picasso and Braque shared similarities in style since the objects were represented by geometric forms such as cylinder, sphere and cone. Whereas Synthetic Cubism was more like synthesizing several objects into a figure. The colors were minimum or almost non-existent in Analytical Cubism paintings. Many of the painting were entirely muted brown or grays. The main reason for this was that the two artists were concerned about geometric shapes. Synthetic Cubism on the other hand is more of a decorative phase of Cubism. Colors were reintroduced in synthetic cubism. For the decorative effort, bright colors were used, smooth and rough surfaces were contrasted with one another. Sometimes objects such as newspapers or tobacco wrappers were used in combination with painted areas.4 Abstraction was one of the main characteristics of Analytical Cubism. There was minimal resemblance with the real world as can be seen in the paintings 'Ma Jolie' (1911) by Picasso and 'The Portuguese' (1911) by Braque. The subject matter appeared to be structure of fragmented planes. In Synthetic Cubism both artists included stenciled letters, words (often pun) as a reaction against abstraction of Analytical Cubism.3 Right angles and straight-lines were mostly used in Analytical Cubism. Paintings were almost flat though sometimes in some areas the painting appeared sculptural, for instance in the painting Girl with a Mandoline' (1910), by Picasso. The synthetic phase of Cubism affirmed Cubism as a manipulative technique which plays games with both reality and perception, through the use of collage and letter stenciling. It also helped in accentuating its flatness. Picasso began to look at sculptures in a new way, due to his experience with collage, as an assemblage of parts rather than a shaped mass, which shows in the sculptures he made in 1912, riffs on the form of the guitar. Cubism as Modern Movement: Cubism is considered to be the most influential modern movement by many art critics. The reason being that Cubism gave a new meaning to looking at objects in a significantly different way from the one set during the Renaissance period. The cubists celebrated simple pleasures and satisfactions of everyday life in their paintings. They rejected any subject not related to the common life. Though their paintings were about common life, the representation was not lifelike. It was the depiction of various forms from many angles giving it several view points at the same time. 5 This was a revolution at that time since during the Renaissance everything in the picture was seen from one viewpoint. Another difference was that in Renaissance things were created producing illusion of reality, but Cubism changed it through its multiple viewpoints posing questions of what is illusion and what is reality. The world was presented as it was perceived by an artist's mind, abstracted and synthesized, with different perspectives shown simultaneously. Many artists were impressed by cubism. Soon they began developing their own cubist language different from Picasso and Braque. Some of them founded separated art movements, such as Italian futurism, English vorticism, Russian rayonism. Artists influenced by Cubism used it as a form of expressionism and also to express their personal and emotional feelings. In a way it can be said that without Cubism, some of the movements would not have been possible. The approach of mixing words with pictures would not have existed if the collage not were invented during Cubism. The ambiguous imagery used in surrealism movement (1920s and 1930s) owes its debt to Cubism and so is the abstract expressionism movement (1940s and 1950s).2 Although Cubism was mainly a movement in painting, it had an influence on other fields also such as modern sculpture, poetry, novels. Cubism technique was applied in novels as the repetition of phrases in paragraphs and chapters to build the flow of the story. Gertrude Stein employed this technique in many of his works including the novel The Makings of Americans'.1 But what is Cubism in poetry It is the conscious, deliberate dissociation and recombination of elements into a new artistic entity made self-sufficient by its rigorous architecture. This is quite different from the free association of the Surrealists and the combination of unconscious utterance and political nihilism of Dada. Explains Kenneth Rexroth in his essay The Cubist Poetry of Pierre Reverdy'.6 The poets associated with Cubism are Guillaume, Apollinaire, Blaise, Cendrars, Jean Cocteau, Max Jacob, Andr Salmon and Pierre Reverdy.1 Cubism made a large contribution in the development of art in 20th Century and it still influences contemporary artists around the world. "When we discovered Cubism, we did not have the aim of discovering Cubism. We only wanted to express what was in us."- Pablo Picasso Works Cited 1- "Cubism", Wikipedia, 2- "Cubism," Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia 2007, < http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761551811_2/Cubism.html > 3- Piper, David. Illustrated History of Arts. Great Britain: Octopus Publishing Group,2000. 4-Moffat,Charles Alexander. Cubism, The Art History Archive, < http://www.arthistoryarchive.com/arthistory/cubism > 5- "Analytical Cubism", < http://www.geocities.com/rr17bb/analycub.html > 6-Rexroth, Kenneth, "The Cubist Poetry of Pierre Reverdy", Read More