¶ … World War One and World War Two, artists pondered their role in the world. "Largely in response to the horrors of World War I and the wish to remake society in its aftermath," artists, architects, and designers began to view art "as a means of social and spiritual redemption," ("De Stijl," n.d.). The result was a utopian and yet ironically pragmatic and functionalistic movement known by its Dutch name De Stijl, or The Style. De Stijl was also the name of the printed journal chronicling the ideas and aesthetics of the movement. Architect Theo van Doesburg is credited with founding De Stijl, but Gerrit Rietveld and Piet Mondrian were also key figures in the movement. De Stijl is characterized by the "machine aesthetics of the new industrial age," abstraction, simplicity, and the absence of surface decorations ("Art, Design, and Visual Thinking: De Stijl," n.d.). Taking its cue from cubism and abstract visual arts, De Stijl artists and designers sought to reduce recognizable forms to create a sort of "universal language" of art and design ("De Stijl," n.d.). Art and design were practically fused in De Stijl, which is why architecture and furniture as well as painting and sculpture, and even literature...
In De Stijl work, the only colors used are black, white, and the primary colors. "The initial source of their ideas came from DaDa notions about dispensing with the pretentious elitist design aesthetics of the pre-war era," ("Art, Design, and Visual Thinking: De Stijl," n.d.). The philosophy of De Stijl is not only utopian but also universalist, as De Stijl was in part a reaction against the perceived excesses of contemporary movements like Art Deco.
In essence the Cubists were not only concerned with the development of new artistic techniques, but their experimentation was also concerned with the search for a new and more dynamic perception of reality. 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
" (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
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
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
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