As one commentator notes; "The Cubists sought to create spatial abstractions" (the AESTHETIC).
As has been stated, Cubism depicts a new reality which was also in essence a form of protest against conventional ideas of both art and reality. In this sense Cubism was also extremely important for the development of art in that sense it started a process in art that led to other forms of experimentation. For example, the Dada and Surrealist movement were largely a result of the Cubist experimentation in painting and sculpture. (Art Periods: CUBISM). Cubist art was to develop from its early stages of experimentation in the first decade of the 1900s to "...the more complex and systematic style of 1910-12, known as analytic cubism..." (the AESTHETIC). What is important to remember is that this form of art and sculpture went much further than just a new style of art and in fact Cubism began as a revolt against the traditions and artistic norms of previous centuries.
Picasso's sculptures and his experiments in Cubism can be traced back to his early (1907) interest in African art and especially African masks. "Picasso created several wood carvings in 1907 that owe a direct debt to African masks and reflect the Cubist style of Les Demoiselles D'Avignon"(European 20th-CenturySculpture). He was to sculpt a number of bronze heads in the Cubist style and they would become progressively more distorted and angular, as can be seen in the 1909 example above (Figure 1). He was to follow these with various sculptural constructions, such as the sheet-metal and wire Guitar (1912,) and the wooden Wineglass and Die (1914).
Figure 2. Pablo Picasso. Guitar. 1914. Sheet metal and wire,
Source: (http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=80934)
It is therefore not surprising that sculpture in the Twentieth Century owes a great degree of its vitality to the original expression of Cubism as epitomized by Picasso and others who pioneered this style in the early years of the previous century. They succeeded in releasing sculpture from its reliance on traditional forms of expression and took the artistic medium to new heights of experimentation and growth.
The way is which the different areas or planes of the artwork are fragmented in Cubism for example can also be seen in the work of Braque.
Figure 3. Georges Braque. Melodie.
Source: (http://www.gildensarts.com/artwork/2382/Georges-Braque-Melodie.html)
Braque began to work with Picasso in 1909 and these two artists experimented with various forms, shapes and styles. This experimentation was eventually to produce the first works of Analytic Cubism. During this period both Braque and Picasso worked with "...neutralized color and complex patterns of faceted form" (Duerden, 2000). Braque also began extend the boundaries of art by using collage elements in his paintings - incorporating newspapers, and fabric into his works.
In establishing the principle that a work of art should be autonomous and not merely imitate nature, Cubism redefined art in the twentieth century. Braque's large compositions incorporated the Cubist aim of representing the world as seen from a number of different viewpoints. He wanted to convey a feeling of being able to move around within the painting. The still life subject remained his chief preoccupation from 1927 to 1955.
The Archive: Braque)
One very important aspect of Cubist sculpture that should be emphasized again was the insistence in their work of seeing reality from many different points-of-view or perspectives. This can be seen as part of rebellion against the conventional and formal rules of art. It is also an indication of the deep need that the artists of the time felt to find new ways of expressing the world around them. As a study by Rosenblum (1961) states,
In place of earlier perspective systems that determined the precise location of discrete objects in illusory depth, Cubism offered an unstable structure of dismembered planes in indeterminate spatial positions. Instead of assuming that the work of art was an illusion of a reality that lay beyond it, Cubism proposed that the work of art was itself a reality that represented the very process by which nature is transformed into art. (Rosemblum, 1961, p.9)
This is an important view as it implies that Cubist sculpture and painting was involved not only with a search for new and exciting styles of art but also with new expressions of reality that had little to do with and were not bound by the conventional objective world.
A dense, opaque shape could suddenly become a weightless transparency; a sharp, firm outline could abruptly dissolve into a vibrant texture; a plane that defined the remoteness of the background could be perceived simultaneously in the immediate foreground. Even the identity of objects was not exempt from these visual contradictions. (Rosemblum, 1961, p.9)
There are many other Cubist artists that can be mentioned. The origins of Cubism are most commonly accredited to Picasso...
Cubism and Sculpture Cubism as an artistic style and movement began as a revolt against the traditions and the artistic norms of previous centuries. Cubist painters and sculptors like Picasso rejected many of the formally accepted elements of art. These elements included texture, color, subject matter, light as a means of determining form as well as movement and atmosphere. The rejection of representation was also a major aspect of the
Cubist Ideas and the Modernist Arts The cubist art work has certain attributes which define its construction and conception. These ideas, clustering around these works of art, were applied to other art forms with varying results. This examination will explore how these new and original ideas about cubism manifested themselves in the productions of art in other genres. The Cubist style must be viewed as an extension of the anti-Romanic, anti-Impressionistic mood
" (Cottington, p. 4) Braque was to follow with an equally disjointed yet less controversial -- in subject -- breaking down of the elements of a "Violin and Candlestick" in 1910, and Picasso was subject to the same breaking-down as a subject of another Cubist's painting, Gris, in "Portrait of Picasso." 1912. Douglas Cooper notes in his book, The Cubist Epoch, that the one common aspect of the many different artists
One of the most fascinating and well-known paintings that represents cubism is Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon." Standing at more than eight feet tall, this painting represents five prostitutes waiting at the doors of a brothel (as evidenced by drawn curtains on either side). One of the prostitutes wears an African mask which some believe represents the scourge of venereal disease -- the masks would protect against them. Avignon is a
Cubism emerged in the early twentieth century, and generally represented a deconstruction of visual forms. Other defining elements of cubism include the abandonment of perspective and the simultaneous denial of the importance of realistic depictions of the subject ("Cubism"). One of the hallmarks of Cubism was the artists' interest in rendering "the changing experience of space, movement, and time," ("Cubism"). Although much Cubist art is representational, many pieces veered toward
c. If we look at modern culture and modern technology, the first connection that can be made with Cubist culture characteristics is its populist nature. We are free to state that the modern culture has gained a populist reverberation and that it is created for the masses. It has lost its elitism and its way of addressing a specific, well-determined and well-defined segment of consumers. If we look at art history
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