The Art Form of Cubism - Essay Example

The art form of cubism Cubism as an art form refers to a conceptual approach that intends at depicting the world as it is and not as it seems. It is an art form whose approach targets at realism and marked the beginning of abstract art. . It is a style of art that emerged at the start of the 20th century and got developed by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. Braque and Picasso created this art style between the years 1907 and 1914 in Paris, which later got adopted by other artists. Braque and Picasso met in 1909 and worked together until 1912 (Witham 59). These two artists collaborated closely in their work and at times their paintings appear synonymous. The term cubism got coined by Louis Vauxcelles, a French art critic who observed the landscapes painted by Braque in 1908. Picasso’s groundbreaking work ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’ created in 1907 offered distortion and stylization believed to have emanated from African art (Robinson 28). The aim of pioneer cubists was to depict art subjects from multiple viewpoints that depicted the subject in a varied and greater context. It is a form of abstract art that got developed in response to a fast changing world at the time. The pioneers of cubism intended to change the traditional forms of art that existed at the time, which got believed to have become outdated. Cubists intended to evoke a new way of viewing which represented the modern age. Cubism technique emphasizes greatly on a formal structure that reduces natural forms to their equaling geometrical shapes. Cubism seeks to evoke the concept of the fourth dimension by organizing the planes of an art subject independently from its required representation (Apollinaire, Eimert & Podoksik 18). This was in view of the pioneer cubist’s aims at providing a subject’s multi-faceted view. In a cubist artwork, the aim is for the artist to analyze an object by breaking it up and reassembling the object again according to the concept of its pictorial structure. The works of Braque and Picasso were in abstract form that got reduced to a series of simple overlapping facets and planes (Robinson 30). The overall effect of the works by Picasso and Braque was to develop an image that relieved a sense of the subject. The broken down subject got reassembled and unified through the use of a limited palette of colors that were subdued. This process in effect introduced collage into painting. Cubism as an art form got prompted by a fast changing world at the start of the 20th century. It got developed as a response to the dawn of modern age in the 20th century. The period between 1870 and 1910 saw the western society witness much more technological advancements than the previous four centuries (Demartino 30). The society saw the invention of cinematography, photography, motor car, airplane, and the telephone that were evidence to the start of a new era. These advancements evoked a problem for artists during the period who found it difficult to reflect the modern age with the traditional techniques of modeling, perspective, and foreshortening. Photography, for instance, had started to serve as a new tool used to document the age’s new inventions such as cars and planes. Artists during this time were finding it difficult to illustrate these inventions with the perspective offered by the art forms that had existed since the renaissance period (Witham 102). Cubism thus emerged as a new way of illustration that greatly expanded the capabilities of the artists to document the invention of the era with limited obstruction. Cubism provided the artists with an expanded ground in art that allowed them to express the technologies that engulfed the modern age with the same vigor that technology was expanding the borders in travel and communication. Another prompt for cubism was art from other cultures and particularly African art. The pioneers of cubism were of the opinion that traditional western art had gotten exhausted. They were of the view that a possible solution was to revitalize their work by drawing on other expressive art energies derived from other culture. The cubists drew inspiration from African art because of their expressive styles, which they believed could refresh the tired traditions of western art. During the period between 1906 and 1909, Picasso painted in a style that got strongly influenced by African sculpture (Witham 49). His interest in African art got ignited by his viewing of an African mask showed to him by Henri Matisse. Cubists undertook the effort to go beyond the naturalism that embodied renaissance western art to adopt the composition of spiritualism exhibited by African sculptures. African sculpture provided a complex approach to the abstraction of the human figure. Picasso’s ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’, which gets credited as the start of cubism exhibited masklike faces and faceted female bodies that are believed to have borrowed from African sculpture (Willard 92). Cubism gets divided into various phases. Proto-cubism refers to the formative years of the cubist movement, and gets believed to have lasted until 1912 (Robinson 22). This period saw Picasso’s ‘Les Demoiselles d’Avignon’ and Braque’s reaction to the ‘Grand Nu’ painting. This period saw Braque borrow ideas from Paul Cezanne later paintings while Picasso assimilated influences from both tribal African art and Cezanne. Proto-cubism was basically a distortion of the human figure, which provided a subject with multiple views (Apollinaire, Eimert & Podoksik 87). The second phase referred to as analytic cubism was commissioned jointly by both Picasso and Braque. It is believed to have lasted until 1912 in France. This phase got characterized by a severely limited palette that was largely brown, black, gray, and off-white. The forms of the subjects during this phase were rigidly geometric and their compositions were intricate and subtle (Apollinaire, Eimert & Podoksik 118). The aim of the artists during this phase such as Braque, Picasso, and Juan Gris was to appeal to the intellect by showing everyday subjects as the mind perceives the and not the eye. The aim was for the artists to analyze the subject from multiple viewpoints and reassemble it within a geometric framework. This enabled the artists to create images that elicited a sense of the subject. The period is best defined by Picasso’s ‘Girl with a mandolin’ (Robinson 35). The last phase of cubism gets referred to as the synthetic stage. This stage emphasized majorly on collage. Picasso’s ‘Still life with chair caning’ can get used to describe this phase accordingly. The phase was called synthetic as subject created during the phase were not made up of paint entirely. Subjects got created by applying other textures on the painting planes such as tobacco wrappers or newspaper bits. The aim of this phase was to revitalize the cubist style by pulling it back from total abstraction. Synthetic cubism geared away from analytic cubism by embarking on a more colorful, decorative, and direct style (Apollinaire, Eimert & Podoksik 208). Cubism is an important art form as it enabled audiences to view everyday subjects in a different way from the multiple viewpoints created by the artists. The early forms of cubism reveal a search for truth in the real and natural word through the use of essential and real colors. Cubism questioned the traditional norms of beauty and aesthetics paving the way for all later art movements of the 20th century (Demartino 56). It was the first type of art form that allowed the representation of three dimensional subjects on a flat surface. This art form allowed for geometric abstract art by placing emphasis on the unification of the surface of the canvas and the depicted scene in a picture. Cubism allowed painters to focus on lines and angles by overlooking representation. Works Cited Bohn, Willard. The Rise of Surrealism: Cubism, Dada, and the Pursuit of the Marvelous. New York: SUNY Press, 2012. Demartino, Ellen B. Getting The Best Paintings: This Superb Guide To Buying Outstanding Paintings Will Surely Bring You Excellent Ideas On Abstract Paintings, Jewish Paintings, Minimalist Art, Modern Oil Painting, Cubist Paintings And So Much More! New York: KMSPublishing, 2014. Guillaume Apollinaire, Dorothea Eimert, Anatoli Podoksik. Cubism. New York: Parkstone International, 2010. Robinson, Shannon. Cubism. New York: The Creative Company, 2006. Witham, Larry. Picasso and the Chess Player: Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, and the Battle for the Soul of Modern Art. New York: UPNE, 2013. Read More