rogerhua

All Images of painting are from "EYECON ART, //Cubism//, http://www.eyeconart.net/history/cubism.htm, 2006"

=What is cubism?=

Cubism was an early 20th century “avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music and literature.”(Wikipedia, 2006) In cubist artworks, objects are broken up, analyzed, and re-assembled in an abstracted form — instead of portraying objects from one viewpoint, the artist portrays the subject from many different dimensions of viewpoints to present the drawing and painting in a greater context. Often the surfaces intersect at seemingly random angles presenting no coherent sense of depth. The background and figure planes interpenetrate one another to create the ambiguous shallow space characteristic of cubism.

Cubism was developed between about 1908 and 1912 by Pablo Picaso and George Barque. These two artists are the innovators of cubism movement. They were partners with each other and worked side by side in the same studio during their cubist period, and their work was almost indistinguishable. This innovative movement was aimed at establishing a new plastic order completely different from the on which had existed up to that time, and it brought a great revolution in visual representation. “One of the primary goals of cubism was to depart from the traditional understanding of perspective and spatial cues.”(EYECON ART, 2006) Cubism did not appear by itself at the time in early 20th century. At this time Europe was in many senses at a great turning point and in art as well innovative art movements were appearing one after another all over the Europe continent such as expressionism in Germany, Fauvism in France, and Futurism in Italy. Cubism itself was not widespread and ling-lived, but in the 20th century it began an immense creative explosion.

Pablo Picasso ( The developement of art by Picasso )

 * (Left) Picasso**: Self Portrait 1899-1900 http://www.eyeconart.net/history/cubism.htm
 * (Right) Picasso**: Self Portrait, cubist period http://www.eyeconart.net/history/cubism.htm

Pablo Picasso had trained to paint by his father since he was a child, and absorbed his influence as well as that of the traditions of Spanish art. By his early 20s, he had moved to Paris, and “quickly changed his earth-toned colors to a palette which was more emotionally expressive.” (EYECON ART, 2006) His first truly original works were those of his Blue period. The young artist was facing some difficult times after the death of his closest friend, and was also experiencing financial troubles during his first years in Paris. His paintings of this time were created in early Blue period, and the images were of emaciated people who look like they are hopeless and despair. Despite this, the paintings achieve a sense of mystery.

His blue period was not lasted for a long time, only few years, and was quickly placed with brighter colors when the living became much easier and improved for artists. He was less worried his financial burden. The historians believe he was falling in love at this time, because the pinks and reds color stated appearing in his works at that time. They call this Rose period.

After the Rose period, the cubist period began. Picasso’s earliest work which broke dramatically from his figurative and poetic works of the first part of his like was Les Demoiselles de Avignon. This painting portrays to the prostitution district of Paris. “The women's facial features disintegrate into primitive masks, and their bodies are so hard-edged that it looks as if it would cut you if you touched them.”(EYECON ART, 2006) At this time, Picasso was influenced by the raw expressive power of African and Oceanic tribal arts. The women are simultaneously having alluring and horrifying. Pablo Picasso and Georges Barque began to cooperate in 1907. They worked side by side, both experimenting a totally flatten space. “One of the primary goals of cubism was to depart from the traditional understanding of perspective and spatial cues.” (EYECON ART, 2006) The style they used in the early cubist period was hard edges, bright colors, and flattened space.

After two years, the two artists started a more systematic study of structure which is “Analytical Cubism”. The paintings in this period “removed bright colors from their compositions, favoring monochromatic earth tones so that they could focus primarily on the structure.” (EYECON ART, 2006) The paintings of this period look like deconstructed objects and rearranged them on the canvas. They painted in this way is to depict different viewpoints simultaneously, “but the danger was that many of the works of this period are completely incomprehensible to the viewer, as they start to lost all sense of form.” (EYECON ART, 2006)

After the analytical cubism is “Synthetic period”. The two artists continue to create new and controversial changes with the introduction of pieced together objects into their paintings. //Still Life with Chair Cane// was first introduced. Then two other famous paintings in this period are //Guitar, Sheet Music and Glass// and //The battle had begun//.

The Painting in Blue Period
//(Left) La Vie// 1903 http://www.eyeconart.net/history/cubism.htm //(Center) Old Guitarrist// 1904 http://www.eyeconart.net/history/cubism.htm (Right) //Woman with Crow// 1904 http://www.eyeconart.net/history/cubism.htm

The Painting in Rose Period
//(Left) Girl with Fan// 1905 http://www.eyeconart.net/history/cubism.htm //(Right) Circus Acrobats and Ape// 1905 http://www.eyeconart.net/history/cubism.htm

The painting in early cubism
(Left) //Les Demoiselles de Avignon, 1907// http://www.eyeconart.net/history/cubism.htm //(Center) Houses with Trees// 1907 http://www.eyeconart.net/history/cubism.htm //(Right) Landscape with Bridge// 1909 http://www.eyeconart.net/history/cubism.htm

The painting in analytic cubism
//(Left) Ambroise Voilard// 1910 http://www.eyeconart.net/history/cubism.htm (Center) Braque, //Violin// http://www.eyeconart.net/history/cubism.htm //(Right) The Mandolin// 1910 http://www.eyeconart.net/history/cubism.htm

The painting in synthetic cubism
//(Left) Guitar, Sheet Music and Glass// 1912 http://www.eyeconart.net/history/cubism.htm //(Right) Still Life with Chair Cane// 1912 http://www.eyeconart.net/history/cubism.htm

Picasso has become my favourit artist since I took art classes in hight school. He had a strong influence toward the art history in the Europe. This is my research essay of cubism, hope you enjoy reading it. Please feel free to add any comments below the bibliography.

Bibliography:
EYECON ART, //Cubism//, http://www.eyeconart.net/history/cubism.htm, 2006

Wikipedia, //Cubism//, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubism, 2006

Nicolas Pioch, Cubism, http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/glo/cubism/, 14, Oct, 2002

ART CYCLOPEDIA, Cubism, http://www.artcyclopedia.com/history/cubism.html, 2006

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