The early 20th Century witnessed a breakthrough in the art movement. Two iconic painters – Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque – no longer wanted to follow the traditional form of art. They didn’t believe that painters had to copy nature or everyday moments. Instead, they wanted to portray the two-dimensionality of the canvas. Hence, their paintings were flat and the forms were reduced to geometric shapes to give the illusion of a three-dimensional view, allowing the viewer to see different parts of the picture simultaneously, breaking away completely from traditional techniques. French painter Paul Cezanne and popular French art critic Louis Vauxcelleslooked at Georges Braque’s painting “Houses at L’Estaque” in 1908 and called it cubes. And, cubism was born.
In the beginning of this period, the subjects of the paintings were almost indiscernible. They were a collection of angles and planes that blended into the background and were almost in monochrome. The painters usually used musical instruments glasses, bottles, still-life and human face and forms as subjects.
The idea of Cubism was to abandon the idea and traditional notions of shape and form and present the world in an entirely new way. It used influences outside of western art, such as African art, and even science as its base to form different perspectives on a flat canvas.
The liberating concepts had far-reaching influences and were not contained to just art. It spilled over to architecture and sculpture as well.
Examples
Man with a Guitar: This 1912 painting by Georges Braque is one of the most popular examples of analytical Cubism, a later evolution of the form. Here, the artist uses nails and ropes on a flat surface to depict a man playing a guitar.
The Weeping Woman: This iconic painting by Pablo Picasso tries to paint a universal picture of suffering. Here, Picasso directly targets the effects of the Spanish Civil War and some even say the picture had a personal story behind it. Picasso’s mother once called him saying all the smoke from the fighting (during the war) was making her eyes water.
Ma Jolie: Another of Picasso’s masterpieces, the representation of forms in the painting in subtle. The form of woman is visible in the centre, presumably his lover Marcelle Humbert. There’s also a treble clef drawn next to the name of the painting. Ma Jolie (My Pretty Girl) was a line in a popular song at a music hall in Paris that the artist visited frequently.
Wow facts
Even though many artists were moving towards abstractionism even as early as the 18th Century, Cubism was the first abstract art movement. It intentionally reduced all forms into geometric shapes and gave a flat but simultaneous view of different sides of the same object. It was a scientific art form.
Cubism wasn’t popular in the beginning. In fact, in the early 20th Century, not depicting nature in its purest form was considered scandalous and heretical. But over many years, the path-breaking form began to gain the importance and respect it deserved.
Picture Credit : Google