Preview

Cubism - Introduction

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
807 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Cubism - Introduction
Cubism - the first style of abstract art
Cubism was a truly revolutionary style of modern art developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. It was the first style of abstract art which evolved at the beginning of the 20th century in response to a world that was changing with unprecedented speed. Cubism was an attempt by artists to revitalise the tired traditions of Western art which they believed had run their course. The Cubists challenged conventional forms of representation, such as perspective, which had been the rule since the Renaissance. Their aim was to develop a new way of seeing which reflected the modern age.
In the four decades from 1870-1910, western society witnessed more technological progress than in the previous four centuries. During this period, inventions such as photography, cinematography, sound recording, the telephone, the motor car and the airplane heralded the dawn of a new age. The problem for artists at this time was how to reflect the modernity of the era using the tired and trusted traditions that had served art for the last four centuries. Photography had begun to replace painting as the tool for documenting the age and for artists to sit illustrating cars, planes and images of the new technologies was not exactly rising to the challenge. Artists needed a more radical approach - a 'new way of seeing' that expanded the possibilities of art in the same way that technology was extending the boundaries of communication and travel. This new way of seeing was called Cubism - the first abstract style of modern art. Picasso and Braque developed their ideas on Cubism around 1907 in Paris and their starting point was a common interest in the later paintings of Paul Cézanne.
The Influence of Cézanne on Cubism
Cézanne was not primarily interested in creating an illusion of depth in his painting and he abandoned the tradition of perspective drawing. Perspective, which had been used since the Early Renaissance, was a geometric formula that

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Modern Art Movement evolved around the turn of the late 1800’s through the turn of the 20th century, to the late 1900’s. Visual Art in Western society moved from naturalism to abstraction during this time, and emphasis was placed on the Design Elements and Principles rather than representation. Modern Art was influenced by the invention of Photography as it freed artists from the constraints of realism.…

    • 471 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Impressionism started out in Paris around the 1860's, it is often referred to as one of the first modern painting movements. It started in Europe but quickly caught on and spread to the United States. The painting that started the movement was a painting by Claude Monet, Impressionism: Sunrise, this particular piece by Monet, was the first of its kind. This new style of painting allowed the artists to take their work outdoors, this allowed them to create more realistic landscapes and actually experience many of the elements they were trying to portray. Impressionist paintings put an emphasis on the visual sensations and were a more accurate portrait of what the artist was actually seeing and experiencing. Different painting techniques…

    • 189 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In conclusion, my Impressionist self-portrait emulates the fleeting changes on the natural world and preserving it on a picture plane. It is a moment captured in its replication of its visual experience, effectively recalling the Impressionist movement. Subsequently, my Cubist portrait accurately represents my image from multiple viewpoints on a two-dimensional plane. The reduction of my face into geometric forms effectively represents Cubist ideals. Both self-portraits reflect the changing experience of space, movement, and time in their respective…

    • 402 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Pablo Picasso

    • 416 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Through his groundbreaking style and ingenious perspective on life, Pablo Picasso became one of the most influential pioneers of Cubism during the 20th century alongside Georges Braque. His innovative masterpieces opened countless amounts of doors for artists during and after his career. Picasso was considered radical in his work not only in his paintings, but he allowed himself to experiment in different mediums such as sculpting, printmaking, ceramics, and even stage designing. Cubism became a new language for artists that allowed them to communicate in a more abstract way, leaving their audience to wonder and interpret the artwork based on their own personal knowledge. Several of Picasso’s masterpieces…

    • 416 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Picasso and Braque were the first artist to depict cubism style. Art pieces placed in the Analytic Cubism movement often demonstrate the use of overlapping geographic facets to depict images of neutral subject matters, such as still life or portraits. The use of harsh edges and straight lines was something hardly used in previous art movements, making cubism the path runner for modern art movements…

    • 128 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Surrealist Art

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The early 20th century is known for its systematic deflation of the traditional rules of Western art. Artists of this era overthrew long held conventions in a series of movements, all arising before 1920. For example Cubists created new styles of composition in painting as well as sculpture. Fauvists and Expressionists attacked traditional notions of pictorial representations through brushwork and bright colors. This is referred to as the style of abstraction. Abstract Expressionists attempted to reconstruct this style of art as a result of the major changes that were happening worldwide. The early 20th century was a dark time for Western civilization especially. In the time of World War I as well as World War II, many artists gave their art a deeper social significance. Most European artists in the immediate postwar period used their art to come to terms in some ways with what they had experienced. There were two primary ways that artists went about their art during this time; some enjoyed the aspect of figural styles while others proposed abstract art (Stokstad 1128).…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    He began experimenting with depicting two different perspectives in one image which is easily visible in his painting, Still Life with a Plate of Cherries (1885-87) (fig 1). Note the two different viewpoints of the plates, the plate of cherries is painted from a bird’s eye perspective. Whilst the plate of peaches is perceived from a side view. The same concept again appears with the vase, you can peer inside as well as including a side view of the object. Perhaps if our eyes were inserted vertically inside our heads rather than horizontally, this would be an accurate depiction of how we see. Subsequently this technique was something that couldn’t be duplicated by photography at the time. Cezanne’s method of working sparked ideas and inspiration for other artists, hence the take-off of modern…

    • 1389 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cubism Art

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Cubism is the fragmenting of three-dimensional forms into areas of pattern and color, overlapping and intertwining so that shapes and parts of the human anatomy are seen from the front and back at the same time. Cubism was first introduced to the world in 1907 by Picasso and Braque. Its introduction, into the art world, changed the viewer 's visual representation. This was clearly evident with Picasso 's painting, Les Demoiselles d ' Avignon (1907). Many found this painting very disturbing and ugly, but the painting was groundbreaking in the history of modern art. This painting contributes to a general impression of disorientation in space. However, the painting Portrait of Olga in an Armchair (1917) may or may not be typical of Picasso 's cubism work.…

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Paul Cezanne

    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Cézanne strived to add form to Impressionism therefore he strayed from his peers, whom he believed lacked composition in their works. He did not have the same attraction towards light as did many Impressionist, he believed that the structure of objects should be portrayed through colour, not light, "I seek to render perspective only through colour". Cézanne created the illusion of depth in his works by adding numerous layers of colour to distinguish the form of his subjects. He would perfect the design in his works by distorting objects and having multiple…

    • 656 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Juan Gris

    • 1545 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Cubism began as an intellectual revolt against the artistic expression of previous eras. Analytical Cubism and Synthetic Cubism are the two main terms used to describe paintings from this movement. In Analytical Cubism, the artist broke down, or analyzed, and then reassembled the observed forms in a mixture of ways. Similarly, in Synthetic Cubism, artists attempted to synthesize or combine imaginative elements into new representational structures. Among the specific elements abandoned by the cubists were the sensual appeal of paint texture and color, subject matter with emotional charge or mood, the play of light on form, movement, atmosphere, and the illusionism that proceeded from scientifically based perspective. Instead, Cubists used an analytic system in order to disjoint and reorganize the three-dimensional subject, which they were painting. In a shallow plane or within many interlocking and usually transparent planes the object would be…

    • 1545 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Cubism -the Weeping Woman

    • 443 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Cubism was an art movement which originated in France and Spain in 1906. Cubism influenced painting movement. Cubist artists include Pablo Picasso, George Braque and Juan Gris. Picasso had recently travelled to Africa and native America and was inspired by the tribal masks. Cubist Artists captured different view points at the same time. This showed collage and made the image look 3D.…

    • 443 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Images splatter against the viewer 's face like a moth on the windshield when gazing at the pigmented speckles dappled along the textured canvas hanging on the wall in the local gallery. Examining the seemingly incomplete picture before them, the viewer may inquire as to the perception of the painted figure from various angles as opposed to the solitary linear image presented by the artist. Mona Lisa 's intriguing smile may birth more questions if the art critic could view it from a profile, or the back of her head, or even from the underside of the canvas as a whole. Although a picture may say a thousand words, a panoramic view of the same subject would utter a hundred thousand more. Realizing the human desire to know and understand what they witness in full, artists such as Pablo Picasso began a style known as cubism between 1907 and 1914. Cubism acknowledges the idea that objects (and perhaps ideas?) are three-dimensional and should therefore be expressed as that. The cubist theory drives itself into the minds of artists of numerous mediums including literature. But in bringing a prismatic feel to a two-dimensional topic, the audience is bombarded with more questions than answers given. This reader then is likely to draw a blank at the images forming in his mind as he pieces the angles together. By producing these multiple angles, whether it be in art or literature, the creator fails to emphasize any particular perspective and often leaves one of them open without explanation, that of the reader. Through its development in the literary cubism method, In the Skin of a Lion by Michael Ondaatje defies the reader 's initial perception of a single story by trivializing the narrow linear view of the lead character and in turn completing the multidimensional view of the story by invoking the reader 's own perspective.…

    • 1871 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through self-criticism Modernist’s goal was to eliminate any effect that was borrowed from the medium they were working with and any other art. Modernist painters wanted their art to be considered as “pure” from any other form or principle. To do this factors that were previously regarded as undesirable were now having attention brought to them and regarded as positive effects such as the flatness of the surfaces, the shape of the support and properties of the pigment. Flatness was the major factor of pictorial art because it was the only element not shared with any other art form such as sculpture, theater, etc. Other elements that varied were the shape and frame of the picture, the paint texture and finish and the color contrast and value.…

    • 816 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Office Art Memo

    • 2248 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Impressionism was generally viewed as the art movement that pioneered modern art, and considered by many to be a radical departure from the traditionally accepted tenets of the Academie des Beaux-Arts or the classic French Art Academy by which artistic standards were set. The artist of the era gave us a different style of painting, new techniques and the…

    • 2248 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Expressionism as an art form could be loosely defined as a movement of artist's that wanted to break free from the conventional art movements of the time and express themselves individually, free from the constraints of their fellow artist's ideals. They wanted to be able to express emotion and feeling in their work.…

    • 927 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays