Cubism

Cubism

It is beyond question that amongst the numerous artistic masterpieces which had left effective imprints in the story and development of art through the centuries, one would come across pivotal compositions such as Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles Avignon or Georges Braque’s Rum and Guitar. A new era in painting had started in the initial years of the twentieth century.

Cubism had become the abandonment of the idea of a single view point, and instead opted for multiple viewpoints so that when the object was reassembled out of the many fragments of the object from the different angles in which it was drawn, it would produce an image where a single object could be observed at as many different perspectives as possible at the same time. To a certain extent it looked like someone had taken a photograph of the same objects at different angles, cut the photos and made a collage with them where they were reassembled and overlapped on a flat surface.

What makes Les Demoiselles Avignon such an influential composition is that it is the singular painting that had developed the beginning of cubism. Picasso, being a revolutionary in painting ideas, had made this painting different from all his others. It acted as a bridge between his initial Rose Period and Blue Period to his cubist period. It is not to say, a single composition, composed in a strict uniform matter of technique, but rather, it is the combination of different paintings put together. The artist’s use of semi-realistic proportions suggest that he is still in transition of changing his techniques according to the movement that interests him, while the angular shapes of the limbs and features suggest the development of cubist ideas. Also, the darker and more strangely formed faces in the picture suggest Picasso’s budding interest in Primitive art, where it is inspired from the African fang mask which similarly to the cubist figures is simplifies and angular in composition.

 

From this composition onwards Picasso decided to improve and refine cubism, where he had eventually met and became friends with Georges Braque where they both shared the common growing interest in Cubism.

 

Georges Braque’s Rum and Guitar on the other hand marks the midway development of the cubist period. One would notice the evident development active between Picasso’s compositions to that of his co-worker’s. Despite still donning the multi-faceted characteristic of the objects the painting almost looks like a collage from a distance with brightly coloured squares painted and instead had a black outline drawn over them to mark the edge of the guitar.

While Braque had decided to quite painting cubism, Picasso had instead persisted, eventually creating the paintings that would now characterize cubism accordingly. He made the subject matter indecipherable and would make use of very bright colour and patterns when painting his work.  Graphic designers nowadays still use these artists as  inspiration for their work. References: ·         http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/cube/hd_cube.htm ·         http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/art_movements/cubism.htm ·        Stephen Little, …isms Understanding Art, 2011, Herbert Press, London