Cubism is an early-20th-century
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
art movement
An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a specific period of time, (usually a few months, years or decades) or, at least, with the heyday of the movement defi ...
that revolutionized European
painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...
and
sculpture
Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...
, and inspired related movements in
music
Music is generally defined as the The arts, art of arranging sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Exact definition of music, definitions of mu ...
,
literature
Literature is any collection of written work, but it is also used more narrowly for writings specifically considered to be an art form, especially prose fiction, drama, and poetry. In recent centuries, the definition has expanded to inclu ...
and
architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...
. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassembled in an abstracted form—instead of depicting objects from a single viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context. Cubism has been considered the most influential art movement of the 20th century.
The term is broadly used in association with a wide variety of art produced in Paris (
Montmartre
Montmartre ( , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by Rue C ...
and
Montparnasse) or near Paris (
Puteaux) during the 1910s and throughout the 1920s.
The movement was pioneered by
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is ...
and
Georges Braque
Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...
, and joined by
Jean Metzinger,
Albert Gleizes,
Robert Delaunay,
Henri Le Fauconnier,
Juan Gris, and
Fernand Léger. One primary influence that led to Cubism was the representation of
three-dimensional
Three-dimensional space (also: 3D space, 3-space or, rarely, tri-dimensional space) is a geometric setting in which three values (called ''parameters'') are required to determine the position of an element (i.e., point). This is the informal ...
form in the late works of
Paul Cézanne.
A retrospective of Cézanne's paintings was held at the
Salon d'Automne
The Salon d'Automne (; en, Autumn Salon), or Société du Salon d'automne, is an art exhibition held annually in Paris, France. Since 2011, it is held on the Champs-Élysées, between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, in mid-October. The f ...
of 1904, current works were displayed at the 1905 and 1906 Salon d'Automne, followed by two commemorative retrospectives after his death in 1907.
[Joann Moser, ''Jean Metzinger in Retrospect, Pre-Cubist works, 1904–1909'', The University of Iowa Museum of Art, J. Paul Getty Trust, University of Washington Press 1985, pp. 34–42]
In France, offshoots of Cubism developed, including
Orphism,
abstract art and later
Purism. The impact of Cubism was far-reaching and wide-ranging. In France and other countries
Futurism,
Suprematism,
Dada
Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...
,
Constructivism,
Vorticism,
De Stijl and
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...
developed in response to Cubism. Early Futurist paintings hold in common with Cubism the fusing of the past and the present, the representation of different views of the subject pictured at the same time or successively, also called multiple perspective, simultaneity or multiplicity,
while Constructivism was influenced by Picasso's technique of constructing sculpture from separate elements. Other common threads between these disparate movements include the faceting or simplification of geometric forms, and the association of mechanization and modern life.
History
Historians have divided the history of Cubism into phases. In one scheme, the first phase of Cubism, known as ''Analytic Cubism'', a phrase coined by
Juan Gris a
posteriori,
[ Honour, H. and J. Fleming, (2009) ''A World History of Art''. 7th edn. London: Laurence King Publishing, p. 784. ] was both radical and influential as a short but highly significant art movement between 1910 and 1912 in France. A second phase, ''Synthetic Cubism'', remained vital until around 1919, when the
Surrealist
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
movement gained popularity. English
art historian Douglas Cooper proposed another scheme, describing three phases of Cubism in his book, ''The Cubist Epoch''. According to Cooper there was "Early Cubism", (from 1906 to 1908) when the movement was initially developed in the studios of Picasso and Braque; the second phase being called "High Cubism", (from 1909 to 1914) during which time
Juan Gris emerged as an important exponent (after 1911); and finally Cooper referred to "Late Cubism" (from 1914 to 1921) as the last phase of Cubism as a radical
avant-garde
The avant-garde (; In 'advance guard' or ' vanguard', literally 'fore-guard') is a person or work that is experimental, radical, or unorthodox with respect to art, culture, or society.John Picchione, The New Avant-garde in Italy: Theoretical ...
movement.
[Douglas Cooper]
"The Cubist Epoch"
pp. 11–221, 232, Phaidon Press Limited 1970 in association with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum).
LACMA was founded in 196 ...
and the Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 100 ...
Douglas Cooper's restrictive use of these terms to distinguish the work of Braque, Picasso, Gris (from 1911) and Léger (to a lesser extent) implied an intentional value judgement.
[Christopher Green, 2009, ''Cubism'', MoMA, Grove Art Online, Oxford University Press](_blank)
Proto-Cubism: 1907–1908
Cubism burgeoned between 1907 and 1911. Pablo Picasso's 1907 painting ''
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
''Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'' (''The Young Ladies of Avignon'', originally titled ''The Brothel of Avignon'') is a large oil painting created in 1907 by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. The work, part of the permanent collection of the Museum o ...
'' has often been considered a
proto-Cubist work.
In 1908, in his review of
Georges Braque
Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...
's exhibition at
Kahnweiler's gallery, the critic
Louis Vauxcelles called Braque a daring man who despises form, "reducing everything, places and a figures and houses, to geometric schemas, to cubes".
Vauxcelles recounted how Matisse told him at the time, "Braque has just sent in
o the 1908 Salon d'Automne
O, or o, is the fifteenth letter and the fourth vowel letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''o'' (pronounced ), plu ...
a painting made of little cubes".
The critic Charles Morice relayed Matisse's words and spoke of Braque's little cubes. The motif of the viaduct at l'Estaque had inspired Braque to produce three paintings marked by the simplification of form and deconstruction of perspective.
Georges Braque's 1908 ''
Houses at L’Estaque'' (and related works) prompted Vauxcelles, in ''Gil Blas'', 25 March 1909, to refer to ''bizarreries cubiques'' (cubic oddities).
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West (Pittsburgh), Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, Calif ...
referred to landscapes made by Picasso in 1909, such as ''Reservoir at Horta de Ebro'', as the first Cubist paintings. The first organized group exhibition by Cubists took place at the
Salon des Indépendants in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
during the spring of 1911 in a room called 'Salle 41'; it included works by
Jean Metzinger,
Albert Gleizes,
Fernand Léger,
Robert Delaunay and
Henri Le Fauconnier, yet no works by Picasso or Braque were exhibited.
By 1911 Picasso was recognized as the inventor of Cubism, while Braque's importance and precedence was argued later, with respect to his treatment of space, volume and mass in the L’Estaque landscapes. But "this view of Cubism is associated with a distinctly restrictive definition of which artists are properly to be called Cubists," wrote the art historian Christopher Green: "Marginalizing the contribution of the artists who exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in 1911
..
The assertion that the Cubist depiction of space, mass, time, and volume supports (rather than contradicts) the flatness of the canvas was made by
Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler as early as 1920, but it was subject to criticism in the 1950s and 1960s, especially by
Clement Greenberg.
Contemporary views of Cubism are complex, formed to some extent in response to the "Salle 41" Cubists, whose methods were too distinct from those of Picasso and Braque to be considered merely secondary to them. Alternative interpretations of Cubism have therefore developed. Wider views of Cubism include artists who were later associated with the "Salle 41" artists, e.g.,
Francis Picabia; the brothers
Jacques Villon,
Raymond Duchamp-Villon and
Marcel Duchamp
Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...
, who beginning in late 1911 formed the core of the
Section d'Or (or the
Puteaux Group); the sculptors
Alexander Archipenko,
Joseph Csaky and
Ossip Zadkine as well as
Jacques Lipchitz
Jacques Lipchitz (26 May 1973) was a Cubism, Cubist sculptor. Lipchitz retained highly figurative and legible components in his work leading up to 1915–16, after which naturalist and descriptive elements were muted, dominated by a synthetic sty ...
and
Henri Laurens; and painters such as
Louis Marcoussis,
Roger de La Fresnaye,
František Kupka,
Diego Rivera
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the ...
,
Léopold Survage,
Auguste Herbin,
André Lhote,
Gino Severini (after 1916),
María Blanchard
María Blanchard (born María Gutiérrez-Cueto y Blanchard;
spanish-art.org; accessed 4 August 2015. ...
(after 1916) and
Georges Valmier
Georges Valmier (11 April 1885 – 25 March 1937) was a French painter. His work encompassed the great movements in the modern history of painting, starting with Impressionism in his early years, then Cubism which he discovered when he was arou ...
(after 1918). More fundamentally, Christopher Green argues that Douglas Cooper's terms were "later undermined by interpretations of the work of Picasso, Braque, Gris and Léger that stress iconographic and ideological questions rather than methods of representation."
John Berger identifies the essence of Cubism with the mechanical diagram. "The metaphorical model of Cubism is the diagram: The diagram being a visible symbolic representation of invisible processes, forces, structures. A diagram need not eschew certain aspects of appearance but these too will be treated as signs not as imitations or recreations."
Early Cubism: 1909–1914
There was a distinct difference between Kahnweiler's Cubists and the Salon Cubists. Prior to 1914, Picasso, Braque, Gris and Léger (to a lesser extent) gained the support of a single committed art dealer in Paris, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, who guaranteed them an annual income for the exclusive right to buy their works. Kahnweiler sold only to a small circle of connoisseurs. His support gave his artists the freedom to experiment in relative privacy. Picasso worked in Montmartre until 1912, while Braque and Gris remained there until after the First World War. Léger was based in Montparnasse.
In contrast, the Salon Cubists built their reputation primarily by exhibiting regularly at the Salon d'Automne and the Salon des Indépendants, both major non-academic Salons in Paris. They were inevitably more aware of public response and the need to communicate.
Already in 1910 a group began to form which included Metzinger, Gleizes, Delaunay and Léger. They met regularly at Henri le Fauconnier's studio near the
boulevard du Montparnasse
The Boulevard du Montparnasse is a two-way boulevard in Montparnasse, in the 6th, 14th and 15th arrondissements in Paris.
Situation
The boulevard joins the place Léon Paul Fargue and place Camille Jullian. The Tour Montparnasse and place du ...
. These soirées often included writers such as Guillaume Apollinaire and
André Salmon. Together with other young artists, the group wanted to emphasise a research into form, in opposition to the Neo-Impressionist emphasis on color.
Louis Vauxcelles, in his review of the 26th Salon des Indépendants (1910), made a passing and imprecise reference to Metzinger, Gleizes, Delaunay, Léger and Le Fauconnier as "ignorant geometers, reducing the human body, the site, to pallid cubes."
[Daniel Robbins, ''Jean Metzinger: At the Center of Cubism'', 1985, ''Jean Metzinger in Retrospect'', The University of Iowa Museum of Art, J. Paul Getty Trust, University of Washington Press] At the 1910 Salon d'Automne, a few months later, Metzinger exhibited his highly fractured ''
Nu à la cheminée (Nude)'', which was subsequently reproduced in both ''Du "Cubisme"'' (1912) and ''Les Peintres Cubistes'' (1913).
The first public controversy generated by Cubism resulted from Salon showings at the Indépendants during the spring of 1911. This showing by Metzinger, Gleizes, Delaunay, le Fauconnier and Léger brought Cubism to the attention of the general public for the first time. Amongst the Cubist works presented, Robert Delaunay exhibited his ''Eiffel Tower, Tour Eiffel'' (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York).
At the Salon d'Automne of the same year, in addition to the Indépendants group of ''Salle 41'', were exhibited works by
André Lhote,
Marcel Duchamp
Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...
, Jacques Villon,
Roger de La Fresnaye,
André Dunoyer de Segonzac and
František Kupka. The exhibition was reviewed in the October 8, 1911 issue of ''The New York Times''. This article was published a year after
Gelett Burgess' ''The Wild Men of Paris'',
and two years prior to the
Armory Show, which introduced astonished Americans, accustomed to realistic art, to the experimental styles of the European avant garde, including Fauvism, Cubism, and Futurism. The 1911 ''New York Times'' article portrayed works by Picasso, Matisse, Derain, Metzinger and others dated before 1909; not exhibited at the 1911 Salon. The article was titled ''The "Cubists" Dominate Paris' Fall Salon'' and subtitled ''Eccentric School of Painting Increases Its Vogue in the Current Art Exhibition – What Its Followers Attempt to Do.''
Among all the paintings on exhibition at the Paris Fall Salon none is attracting so much attention as the extraordinary productions of the so-called "Cubist" school. In fact, dispatches from Paris suggest that these works are easily the main feature of the exhibition. ..
In spite of the crazy nature of the "Cubist" theories the number of those professing them is fairly respectable. Georges Braque, André Derain, Picasso, Czobel, Othon Friesz, Herbin, Metzinger—these are a few of the names signed to canvases before which Paris has stood and now again stands in blank amazement.
What do they mean? Have those responsible for them taken leave of their senses? Is it art or madness? Who knows?
Salon des Indépendants
The subsequent 1912 Salon des Indépendants located in Paris (20 March to 16 May 1912) was marked by the presentation of Marcel Duchamp's ''
Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2'', which itself caused a scandal, even amongst the Cubists. It was in fact rejected by the hanging committee, which included his brothers and other Cubists. Although the work was shown in the Salon de la Section d'Or in October 1912 and the 1913 Armory Show in New York, Duchamp never forgave his brothers and former colleagues for censoring his work.
Juan Gris, a new addition to the Salon scene, exhibited his ''Portrait of Picasso'' (Art Institute of Chicago), while Metzinger's two showings included ''
La Femme au Cheval (Woman with a horse)'' 1911–1912 (
National Gallery of Denmark). Delaunay's monumental ''La Ville de Paris'' (Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris) and Léger's ''La Noce'', ''The Wedding'' (Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris), were also exhibited.
Galeries Dalmau
In 1912,
Galeries Dalmau presented the first declared group exhibition of Cubism worldwide (''Exposició d'Art Cubista''),
[Mark Antliff and Patricia Leighten, ''A Cubism Reader, Documents and Criticism, 1906–1914'', University of Chicago Press, 2008, pp. 293–295][Carol A. Hess, ''Manuel de Falla and Modernism in Spain, 1898–1936''](_blank)
University of Chicago Press, 2001, p. 76, with a controversial showing by Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Juan Gris, Marie Laurencin and Marcel Duchamp (Barcelona, 20 April to 10 May 1912). The Dalmau exhibition comprised 83 works by 26 artists.
[Mercè Vidal, ''L'exposició d'Art Cubista de les Galeries Dalmau 1912''](_blank)
Edicions Universitat Barcelona, 1996, Jacques Nayral's association with Gleizes led him to write the Preface for the Cubist exhibition,
which was fully translated and reproduced in the newspaper ''La Veu de Catalunya''. Duchamp's ''Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2'' was exhibited for the first time.
[William H. Robinson, Jordi Falgàs, Carmen Belen Lord, ''Barcelona and Modernity: Picasso, Gaudí, Miró, Dalí''](_blank)
Cleveland Museum of Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York), Yale University Press, 2006,
Extensive media coverage (in newspapers and magazines) before, during and after the exhibition launched the Galeries Dalmau as a force in the development and propagation of modernism in Europe.
While press coverage was extensive, it was not always positive. Articles were published in the newspapers ''Esquella de La Torratxa'' and ''El Noticiero Universal''
attacking the Cubists with a series of caricatures laced with derogatory text.
Art historian Jaime Brihuega writes of the Dalmau show: "No doubt that the exhibition produced a strong commotion in the public, who welcomed it with a lot of suspicion.
Salon d'Automne
The Cubist contribution to the
1912 Salon d'Automne created scandal regarding the use of government owned buildings, such as the
Grand Palais
The Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées ( en, Great Palace of the Elysian Fields), commonly known as the Grand Palais ( English: Great Palace), is a historic site, exhibition hall and museum complex located at the Champs-Élysées in the 8th ...
, to exhibit such artwork. The indignation of the politician
Jean Pierre Philippe Lampué made the front page of ''Le Journal'', 5 October 1912. The controversy spread to the Municipal Council of Paris, leading to a debate in the Chambre des Députés about the use of public funds to provide the venue for such art.
[Journal officiel de la République française. Débats parlementaires. Chambre des députés, 3 Décembre 1912, pp. 2924–2929. Bibliothèque et Archives de l'Assemblée nationale, 2012–7516](_blank)
. The Cubists were defended by the Socialist deputy,
Marcel Sembat.
[Patrick F. Barrer: ''Quand l'art du XXe siècle était conçu par les inconnus'', pp. 93–101, gives an account of the debate.]
It was against this background of public anger that Jean Metzinger and Albert Gleizes wrote ''
Du "Cubisme"'' (published by Eugène Figuière in 1912, translated to English and Russian in 1913). Among the works exhibited were
Le Fauconnier's vast composition ''Les Montagnards attaqués par des ours (Mountaineers Attacked by Bears)'' now at Rhode Island School of Design Museum,
Joseph Csaky's ''Deux Femme, Two Women'' (a sculpture now lost), in addition to the highly abstract paintings by Kupka, ''Amorpha'' (The National Gallery, Prague), and
Picabia, ''
La Source (The Spring)'' (Museum of Modern Art, New York).
Abstraction and the ready-made
The most extreme forms of Cubism were not those practiced by Picasso and Braque, who resisted total abstraction. Other Cubists, by contrast, especially
František Kupka, and those considered
Orphists by
Apollinaire (Delaunay, Léger, Picabia and Duchamp), accepted abstraction by removing visible subject matter entirely. Kupka's two entries at the 1912 Salon d'Automne, ''Amorpha-Fugue à deux couleurs'' and ''Amorpha chromatique chaude'', were highly abstract (or nonrepresentational) and metaphysical in orientation. Both Duchamp in 1912 and Picabia from 1912 to 1914 developed an expressive and allusive abstraction dedicated to complex emotional and sexual themes. Beginning in 1912 Delaunay painted a series of paintings entitled ''Simultaneous Windows'', followed by a series entitled ''Formes Circulaires'', in which he combined planar structures with bright prismatic hues; based on the optical characteristics of juxtaposed colors his departure from reality in the depiction of imagery was quasi-complete. In 1913–14 Léger produced a series entitled ''Contrasts of Forms'', giving a similar stress to color, line and form. His Cubism, despite its abstract qualities, was associated with themes of mechanization and modern life. Apollinaire supported these early developments of abstract Cubism in ''Les Peintres cubistes'' (1913),
writing of a new "pure" painting in which the subject was vacated. But in spite of his use of the term Orphism these works were so different that they defy attempts to place them in a single category.
Also labeled an Orphist by Apollinaire, Marcel Duchamp was responsible for another extreme development inspired by Cubism. The
ready-made
A readymade ( found object) is a piece of art created from undisguised, but often modified, objects or products that are not normally considered art.
Readymade may also refer to:
* Prefabrication, the practice of assembling components in a factor ...
arose from a joint consideration that the work itself is considered an object (just as a painting), and that it uses the material detritus of the world (as collage and papier collé in the Cubist construction and Assemblage). The next logical step, for Duchamp, was to present an ordinary object as a self-sufficient work of art representing only itself. In 1913 he attached a bicycle wheel to a kitchen stool and in 1914 selected a bottle-drying rack as a sculpture in its own right.
Section d'Or
The ''Section d'Or'', also known as ''Groupe de Puteaux'', founded by some of the most conspicuous Cubists, was a collective of painters, sculptors and critics associated with Cubism and Orphism, active from 1911 through about 1914, coming to prominence in the wake of their controversial showing at the 1911
Salon des Indépendants. The ''Salon de la Section d'Or'' at the ''Galerie La Boétie'' in Paris, October 1912, was arguably the most important pre-World War I Cubist exhibition; exposing Cubism to a wide audience. Over 200 works were displayed, and the fact that many of the artists showed artworks representative of their development from 1909 to 1912 gave the exhibition the allure of a Cubist retrospective.
The group seems to have adopted the name Section d'Or to distinguish themselves from the narrower definition of Cubism developed in parallel by
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is ...
and
Georges Braque
Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...
in the
Montmartre
Montmartre ( , ) is a large hill in Paris's northern 18th arrondissement. It is high and gives its name to the surrounding district, part of the Right Bank. The historic district established by the City of Paris in 1995 is bordered by Rue C ...
quarter of Paris, and to show that Cubism, rather than being an isolated art-form, represented the continuation of a grand tradition (indeed, the
golden ratio
In mathematics, two quantities are in the golden ratio if their ratio is the same as the ratio of their sum to the larger of the two quantities. Expressed algebraically, for quantities a and b with a > b > 0,
where the Greek letter phi ( ...
had fascinated Western intellectuals of diverse interests for at least 2,400 years).
The idea of the Section d'Or originated in the course of conversations between Metzinger, Gleizes and Jacques Villon. The group's title was suggested by Villon, after reading a 1910 translation of
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 14522 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, Drawing, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially re ...
's ''
Trattato della Pittura'' by
Joséphin Péladan.
During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Europeans were discovering
African, Polynesian,
Micronesia
Micronesia (, ) is a subregion of Oceania, consisting of about 2,000 small islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It has a close shared cultural history with three other island regions: the Philippines to the west, Polynesia to the east, and ...
n and
Native American art. Artists such as
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct fr ...
,
Henri Matisse
Henri Émile Benoît Matisse (; 31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954) was a French visual artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original draughtsmanship. He was a drawing, draughtsman, printmaking, printmaker, and sculptur ...
, and Pablo Picasso were intrigued and inspired by the stark power and simplicity of styles of those foreign cultures. Around 1906, Picasso met Matisse through
Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West (Pittsburgh), Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, Calif ...
, at a time when both artists had recently acquired an interest in
primitivism
Primitivism is a mode of aesthetic idealization that either emulates or aspires to recreate a "primitive" experience. It is also defined as a philosophical doctrine that considers "primitive" peoples as nobler than civilized peoples and was an o ...
,
Iberian sculpture,
African art
African art describes the modern and historical paintings, sculptures, installations, and other visual culture from native or indigenous Ethnic groups of Africa, Africans and the African continent. The definition may also include the art of the ...
and
African tribal masks. They became friendly rivals and competed with each other throughout their careers, perhaps leading to Picasso entering a new period in his work by 1907, marked by the influence of Greek, Iberian and African art. Picasso's paintings of 1907 have been characterized as
Protocubism, as notably seen in ''
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
''Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'' (''The Young Ladies of Avignon'', originally titled ''The Brothel of Avignon'') is a large oil painting created in 1907 by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. The work, part of the permanent collection of the Museum o ...
'', the
antecedent
An antecedent is a preceding event, condition, cause, phrase, or word.
The etymology is from the Latin noun ''antecedentem'' meaning "something preceding", which comes from the preposition ''ante'' ("before") and the verb ''cedere'' ("to go").
...
of Cubism.
The art historian Douglas Cooper states that
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (, ; ; 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903) was a French Post-Impressionist artist. Unappreciated until after his death, Gauguin is now recognized for his experimental use of colour and Synthetist style that were distinct fr ...
and
Paul Cézanne "were particularly influential to the formation of Cubism and especially important to the paintings of Picasso during 1906 and 1907". Cooper goes on to say: "The ''Demoiselles'' is generally referred to as the first Cubist picture. This is an exaggeration, for although it was a major first step towards Cubism it is not yet Cubist. The disruptive,
expressionist element in it is even contrary to the spirit of Cubism, which looked at the world in a detached, realistic spirit. Nevertheless, the ''Demoiselles'' is the logical picture to take as the starting point for Cubism, because it marks the birth of a new pictorial idiom, because in it Picasso violently overturned established conventions and because all that followed grew out of it."
The most serious objection to regarding the ''Demoiselles'' as the origin of Cubism, with its evident influence of primitive art, is that "such deductions are unhistorical", wrote the art historian
Daniel Robbins. This familiar explanation "fails to give adequate consideration to the complexities of a flourishing art that existed just before and during the period when Picasso's new painting developed."
Between 1905 and 1908, a conscious search for a new style caused rapid changes in art across France, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, and Russia. The Impressionists had used a double point of view, and both
Les Nabis and the
Symbolists
Symbolism was a late 19th-century art movement of French and Belgian origin in poetry and other arts seeking to represent absolute truths symbolically through language and metaphorical images, mainly as a reaction against naturalism and realis ...
(who also admired Cézanne) flattened the picture plane, reducing their subjects to simple geometric forms.
Neo-Impressionist structure and subject matter, most notably to be seen in the works of
Georges Seurat (e.g., ''Parade de Cirque'', ''
Le Chahut'' and ''
Le Cirque''), was another important influence. There were also parallels in the development of literature and social thought.
In addition to Seurat, the roots of cubism are to be found in the two distinct tendencies of Cézanne's later work: first his breaking of the painted surface into small multifaceted areas of paint, thereby emphasizing the plural viewpoint given by
binocular vision
In biology, binocular vision is a type of vision in which an animal has two eyes capable of facing the same direction to perceive a single three-dimensional image of its surroundings. Binocular vision does not typically refer to vision where an ...
, and second his interest in the simplification of natural forms into cylinders, spheres, and cones. However, the cubists explored this concept further than Cézanne. They represented all the surfaces of depicted objects in a single picture plane, as if the objects had all their faces visible at the same time. This new kind of depiction revolutionized the way objects could be visualized in painting and art.
The historical study of Cubism began in the late 1920s, drawing at first from sources of limited data, namely the opinions of
Guillaume Apollinaire. It came to rely heavily on
Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler's book ''Der Weg zum Kubismus'' (published in 1920), which centered on the developments of Picasso, Braque, Léger, and Gris. The terms "analytical" and "synthetic" which subsequently emerged have been widely accepted since the mid-1930s. Both terms are historical impositions that occurred after the facts they identify. Neither phase was designated as such at the time corresponding works were created. "If Kahnweiler considers Cubism as Picasso and Braque," wrote Daniel Robbins, "our only fault is in subjecting other Cubists' works to the rigors of that limited definition."
The traditional interpretation of "Cubism", formulated ''post facto'' as a means of understanding the works of Braque and Picasso, has affected our appreciation of other twentieth-century artists. It is difficult to apply to painters such as
Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes,
Robert Delaunay and
Henri Le Fauconnier, whose fundamental differences from traditional Cubism compelled Kahnweiler to question whether to call them Cubists at all. According to
Daniel Robbins, "To suggest that merely because these artists developed differently or varied from the traditional pattern they deserved to be relegated to a secondary or satellite role in Cubism is a profound mistake."
The history of the term "Cubism" usually stresses the fact that Matisse referred to "cubes" in connection with a painting by Braque in 1908, and that the term was published twice by the critic
Louis Vauxcelles in a similar context. However, the word "cube" was used in 1906 by another critic, Louis Chassevent, with reference not to Picasso or Braque but rather to Metzinger and Delaunay:
::"M. Metzinger is a mosaicist like M.
Signac
Signac (; oc, Sinhac) is a commune in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and t ...
but he brings more precision to the cutting of his cubes of color which appear to have been made mechanically
...
[Robert Herbert, Neo-Impressionism, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, 1968]
The critical use of the word "cube" goes back at least to May 1901 when Jean Béral, reviewing the work of
Henri-Edmond Cross at the Indépendants in ''Art et Littérature'', commented that he "uses a large and square pointillism, giving the impression of mosaic. One even wonders why the artist has not used cubes of solid matter diversely colored: they would make pretty revetments." (Robert Herbert, 1968, p. 221)
The term Cubism did not come into general usage until 1911, mainly with reference to Metzinger, Gleizes, Delaunay, and Léger.
In 1911, the poet and critic
Guillaume Apollinaire accepted the term on behalf of a group of artists invited to exhibit at the Brussels Indépendants. The following year, in preparation for the Salon de la
Section d'Or, Metzinger and Gleizes wrote and published ''
Du "Cubisme"'' in an effort to dispel the confusion raging around the word, and as a major defence of Cubism (which had caused a public scandal following the 1911 Salon des Indépendants and the 1912 Salon d'Automne in Paris). Clarifying their aims as artists, this work was the first theoretical treatise on Cubism and it still remains the clearest and most intelligible. The result, not solely a collaboration between its two authors, reflected discussions by the circle of artists who met in
Puteaux and
Courbevoie. It mirrored the attitudes of the "artists of Passy", which included Picabia and the Duchamp brothers, to whom sections of it were read prior to publication.
The concept developed in ''Du "Cubisme"'' of observing a subject from different points in space and time simultaneously, i.e., the act of moving around an object to seize it from several successive angles fused into a single image (multiple viewpoints, mobile perspective, simultaneity or multiplicity), is a generally recognized device used by the Cubists.
The 1912 manifesto ''
Du "Cubisme"'' by Metzinger and Gleizes was followed in 1913 by ''
Les Peintres Cubistes'', a collection of reflections and commentaries by Guillaume Apollinaire.
[Guillaume Apollinaire, ''Les Peintres cubistes: Méditations esthétiques'' (Paris, 1913)] Apollinaire had been closely involved with Picasso beginning in 1905, and Braque beginning in 1907, but gave as much attention to artists such as Metzinger, Gleizes, Delaunay, Picabia, and Duchamp.
The fact that the 1912 exhibition had been curated to show the successive stages through which Cubism had transited, and that ''
Du "Cubisme"'' had been published for the occasion, indicates the artists' intention of making their work comprehensible to a wide audience (art critics, art collectors, art dealers and the general public). Undoubtedly, due to the great success of the exhibition, Cubism became avant-garde movement recognized as a genre or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal.
Crystal Cubism: 1914–1918
A significant modification of Cubism between 1914 and 1916 was signaled by a shift towards a strong emphasis on large overlapping geometric planes and flat surface activity. This grouping of styles of painting and sculpture, especially significant between 1917 and 1920, was practiced by several artists; particularly those under contract with the art dealer and collector
Léonce Rosenberg. The tightening of the compositions, the clarity and sense of order reflected in these works, led to its being referred to by the critic
Maurice Raynal as 'crystal' Cubism. Considerations manifested by Cubists prior to the outset of
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
—such as the
fourth dimension
Fourth dimension may refer to:
Science
* Time in physics, the continued progress of existence and events
* Four-dimensional space, the concept of a fourth spatial dimension
* Spacetime, the unification of time and space as a four-dimensional con ...
, dynamism of modern life, the occult, and
Henri Bergson
Henri-Louis Bergson (; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopherHenri Bergson. 2014. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 13 August 2014, from https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/61856/Henri-Bergson 's concept of
duration—had now been vacated, replaced by a purely formal frame of reference.
[Christopher Green, ''Cubism and Its Enemies: Modern Movements and Reaction in French Art, 1916–1928''](_blank)
, Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1987,
Crystal Cubism, and its associative ''rappel à l'ordre'', has been linked with an inclination—by those who served the armed forces and by those who remained in the civilian sector—to escape the realities of the Great War, both during and directly following the conflict. The purifying of Cubism from 1914 through the mid-1920s, with its cohesive unity and voluntary constraints, has been linked to a much broader
ideological
An ideology is a set of beliefs or philosophies attributed to a person or group of persons, especially those held for reasons that are not purely epistemic, in which "practical elements are as prominent as theoretical ones." Formerly applied pri ...
transformation towards
conservatism
Conservatism is a Philosophy of culture, cultural, Social philosophy, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in r ...
in both French society and
French culture.
Cubism after 1918
The most innovative period of Cubism was before 1914. After World War I, with the support given by the dealer
Léonce Rosenberg, Cubism returned as a central issue for artists, and continued as such until the mid-1920s when its avant-garde status was rendered questionable by the emergence of
geometric abstraction
Geometric abstraction is a form of abstract art based on the use of geometric forms sometimes, though not always, placed in non-illusionistic space and combined into non-objective (non-representational) compositions. Although the genre was pop ...
and
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...
. Many Cubists, including Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger, Gleizes, and Metzinger, while developing other styles, returned periodically to Cubism, even well after 1925. Cubism reemerged during the 1920s and the 1930s in the work of the American
Stuart Davis and the Englishman
Ben Nicholson. In France, however, Cubism experienced a decline beginning in about 1925. Léonce Rosenberg exhibited not only the artists stranded by Kahnweiler's exile but others including Laurens, Lipchitz, Metzinger, Gleizes, Csaky, Herbin and Severini. In 1918 Rosenberg presented a series of Cubist exhibitions at his Galerie de l’Effort Moderne in Paris. Attempts were made by Louis Vauxcelles to argue that Cubism was dead, but these exhibitions, along with a well-organized Cubist show at the 1920 Salon des Indépendants and a revival of the Salon de la Section d’Or in the same year, demonstrated it was still alive.
The reemergence of Cubism coincided with the appearance from about 1917–24 of a coherent body of theoretical writing by Pierre Reverdy, Maurice Raynal and Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler and, among the artists, by Gris, Léger and Gleizes. The occasional return to classicism—figurative work either exclusively or alongside Cubist work—experienced by many artists during this period (called
Neoclassicism) has been linked to the tendency to evade the realities of the war and also to the cultural dominance of a classical or Latin image of France during and immediately following the war. Cubism after 1918 can be seen as part of a wide ideological shift towards
conservatism
Conservatism is a Philosophy of culture, cultural, Social philosophy, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in r ...
in both
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
society and culture. Yet, Cubism itself remained evolutionary both within the oeuvre of individual artists, such as Gris and Metzinger, and across the work of artists as different from each other as Braque, Léger and Gleizes. Cubism as a publicly debated movement became relatively unified and open to definition. Its theoretical purity made it a gauge against which such diverse tendencies as
Realism or
Naturalism,
Dada
Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...
,
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
and abstraction could be compared.
Influence in Asia
Japan and
China were among the first countries in Asia to be influenced by Cubism. Contact first occurred via European texts translated and published in Japanese art journals in the 1910s. In the 1920s, Japanese and Chinese artists who studied in Paris, for example those enrolled at the
École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts
The Beaux-Arts de Paris is a French '' grande école'' whose primary mission is to provide high-level arts education and training. This is classical and historical School of Fine Arts in France. The art school, which is part of the Paris Scien ...
, brought back with them both an understanding of modern art movements, including Cubism. Notable works exhibiting Cubist qualities were
Tetsugorō Yorozu's ''Self Portrait with Red Eyes'' (1912) and
Fang Ganmin's ''Melody in Autumn'' (1934).
Interpretation
Intentions and criticism
The Cubism of Picasso and Braque had more than a technical or formal significance, and the distinct attitudes and intentions of the Salon Cubists produced different kinds of Cubism, rather than a derivative of their work. "It is by no means clear, in any case," wrote Christopher Green, "to what extent these other Cubists depended on Picasso and Braque for their development of such techniques as faceting, 'passage' and multiple perspective; they could well have arrived at such practices with little knowledge of 'true' Cubism in its early stages, guided above all by their own understanding of Cézanne." The works exhibited by these Cubists at the 1911 and 1912 Salons extended beyond the conventional Cézanne-like subjects—the posed model, still-life and landscape—favored by Picasso and Braque to include large-scale modern-life subjects. Aimed at a large public, these works stressed the use of multiple perspective and complex planar faceting for expressive effect while preserving the eloquence of subjects endowed with literary and philosophical connotations.
In ''Du "Cubisme"'' Metzinger and Gleizes explicitly related the sense of time to multiple perspective, giving symbolic expression to the notion of ‘duration’ proposed by the philosopher
Henri Bergson
Henri-Louis Bergson (; 18 October 1859 – 4 January 1941) was a French philosopherHenri Bergson. 2014. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 13 August 2014, from https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/61856/Henri-Bergson according to which life is subjectively experienced as a continuum, with the past flowing into the present and the present merging into the future. The Salon Cubists used the faceted treatment of solid and space and effects of multiple viewpoints to convey a physical and psychological sense of the fluidity of consciousness, blurring the distinctions between past, present and future. One of the major theoretical innovations made by the Salon Cubists, independently of Picasso and Braque, was that of ''simultaneity'',
drawing to greater or lesser extent on theories of
Henri Poincaré
Jules Henri Poincaré ( S: stress final syllable ; 29 April 1854 – 17 July 1912) was a French mathematician, theoretical physicist, engineer, and philosopher of science. He is often described as a polymath, and in mathematics as "The ...
,
Ernst Mach
Ernst Waldfried Josef Wenzel Mach ( , ; 18 February 1838 – 19 February 1916) was a Moravian-born Austrian physicist and philosopher, who contributed to the physics of shock waves. The ratio of one's speed to that of sound is named the Mac ...
,
Charles Henry Charles, Charlie, or Chuck Henry may refer to:
Sportsmen
*Charlie Henry (baseball) (1900–1972), American Negro leagues baseball player
*Charles Henry (basketball), Gonzaga basketball coach for the 1943–44 season
*Charlie Henry (footballer, bor ...
,
Maurice Princet, and Henri Bergson. With simultaneity, the concept of separate spatial and temporal dimensions was comprehensively challenged.
Linear perspective developed during
the Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass idea ...
was vacated. The subject matter was no longer considered from a specific point of view at a moment in time, but built following a selection of successive viewpoints, i.e., as if viewed simultaneously from numerous angles (and in multiple dimensions) with the eye free to roam from one to the other.
This technique of representing simultaneity, multiple viewpoints (or
relative motion
The relative velocity \vec_ (also \vec_ or \vec_) is the velocity of an object or observer B in the rest frame of another object or observer A.
Classical mechanics
In one dimension (non-relativistic)
We begin with relative motion in the classi ...
) is pushed to a high degree of complexity in Metzinger's ''
Nu à la cheminée'', exhibited at the 1910 Salon d'Automne; Gleizes' monumental ''
Le Dépiquage des Moissons (Harvest Threshing)'', exhibited at the 1912 Salon de la Section d'Or; Le Fauconnier's ''Abundance'' shown at the Indépendants of 1911; and Delaunay's ''City of Paris'', exhibited at the Indépendants in 1912. These ambitious works are some of the largest paintings in the history of Cubism. Léger's ''The Wedding'', also shown at the Salon des Indépendants in 1912, gave form to the notion of simultaneity by presenting different motifs as occurring within a single temporal frame, where responses to the past and present interpenetrate with collective force. The conjunction of such subject matter with simultaneity aligns Salon Cubism with early Futurist paintings by
Umberto Boccioni, Gino Severini and
Carlo Carrà; themselves made in response to early Cubism.
Cubism and
modern European art was introduced into the United States at the now legendary 1913
Armory Show in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the U ...
, which then traveled to
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes =
, subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...
and
Boston
Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the capital city, state capital and List of municipalities in Massachusetts, most populous city of the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financ ...
. In the Armory show
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is ...
exhibited ''La Femme au pot de moutarde'' (1910), the sculpture ''Head of a Woman (Fernande)'' (1909–10), ''Les Arbres'' (1907) amongst other cubist works.
Jacques Villon exhibited seven important and large drypoints, while his brother
Marcel Duchamp
Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...
shocked the American public with his painting ''
Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2'' (1912).
Francis Picabia exhibited his abstractions ''La Danse à la source'' and ''La Procession, Seville'' (both of 1912).
Albert Gleizes exhibited ''
La Femme aux phlox'' (1910) and ''
L'Homme au balcon'' (1912), two highly stylized and faceted cubist works.
Georges Braque
Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...
,
Fernand Léger,
Raymond Duchamp-Villon,
Roger de La Fresnaye and
Alexander Archipenko also contributed examples of their cubist works.
Cubist sculpture
Just as in painting, Cubist sculpture is rooted in Paul Cézanne's reduction of painted objects into component planes and geometric solids (cubes, spheres, cylinders, and cones). And just as in painting, it became a pervasive influence and contributed fundamentally to
Constructivism and
Futurism.
Cubist sculpture developed in parallel to Cubist painting. During the autumn of 1909 Picasso sculpted ''Head of a Woman (Fernande)'' with positive features depicted by negative space and vice versa. According to Douglas Cooper: "The first true Cubist sculpture was Picasso's impressive ''Woman's Head'', modeled in 1909–10, a counterpart in three dimensions to many similar analytical and faceted heads in his paintings at the time."
These positive/negative reversals were ambitiously exploited by
Alexander Archipenko in 1912–13, for example in ''Woman Walking''.
Joseph Csaky, after Archipenko, was the first sculptor in Paris to join the Cubists, with whom he exhibited from 1911 onwards. They were followed by
Raymond Duchamp-Villon and then in 1914 by
Jacques Lipchitz
Jacques Lipchitz (26 May 1973) was a Cubism, Cubist sculptor. Lipchitz retained highly figurative and legible components in his work leading up to 1915–16, after which naturalist and descriptive elements were muted, dominated by a synthetic sty ...
,
Henri Laurens and
Ossip Zadkine.
Indeed, Cubist construction was as influential as any pictorial Cubist innovation. It was the stimulus behind the proto-Constructivist work of both
Naum Gabo and
Vladimir Tatlin and thus the starting-point for the entire constructive tendency in 20th-century modernist sculpture.
Architecture
Cubism formed an important link between early-20th-century art and architecture.
The historical, theoretical, and socio-political relationships between avant-garde practices in painting, sculpture and architecture had early ramifications in France, Germany, the Netherlands and
Czechoslovakia
, rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי,
, common_name = Czechoslovakia
, life_span = 1918–19391945–1992
, p1 = Austria-Hungary
, image_p1 ...
. Though there are many points of intersection between Cubism and architecture, only a few direct links between them can be drawn. Most often the connections are made by reference to shared formal characteristics: faceting of form, spatial ambiguity, transparency, and multiplicity.
Architectural interest in Cubism centered on the dissolution and reconstitution of three-dimensional form, using simple geometric shapes, juxtaposed without the illusions of classical perspective. Diverse elements could be superimposed, made transparent or penetrate one another, while retaining their spatial relationships. Cubism had become an influential factor in the development of modern architecture from 1912 (''La Maison Cubiste'', by
Raymond Duchamp-Villon and
André Mare) onwards, developing in parallel with architects such as
Peter Behrens
Peter Behrens (14 April 1868 – 27 February 1940) was a leading German architect, graphic and industrial designer, best known for his early pioneering AEG Turbine Hall in Berlin in 1909. He had a long career, designing objects, typefaces, an ...
and
Walter Gropius
Walter Adolph Georg Gropius (18 May 1883 – 5 July 1969) was a German-American architect and founder of the Bauhaus School, who, along with Alvar Aalto, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier and Frank Lloyd Wright, is widely regarded as one ...
, with the simplification of building design, the use of materials appropriate to industrial production, and the increased use of glass.
Cubism was relevant to an architecture seeking a style that needed not refer to the past. Thus, what had become a revolution in both painting and sculpture was applied as part of "a profound reorientation towards a changed world".
The Cubo-Futurist ideas of
Filippo Tommaso Marinetti influenced attitudes in avant-garde architecture. The influential
De Stijl movement embraced the aesthetic principles of Neo-plasticism developed by
Piet Mondrian
Pieter Cornelis Mondriaan (), after 1906 known as Piet Mondrian (, also , ; 7 March 1872 – 1 February 1944), was a Dutch painter and art theoretician who is regarded as one of the greatest artists of the 20th century. He is known for being o ...
under the influence of Cubism in Paris. De Stijl was also linked by
Gino Severini to Cubist theory through the writings of Albert Gleizes. However, the linking of basic geometric forms with inherent beauty and ease of industrial application—which had been prefigured by Marcel Duchamp from 1914—was left to the founders of
Purism,
Amédée Ozenfant and Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (better known as
Le Corbusier
Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (6 October 188727 August 1965), known as Le Corbusier ( , , ), was a Swiss-French architect, designer, painter, urban planner, writer, and one of the pioneers of what is now regarded as modern architecture. He was ...
,) who exhibited paintings together in Paris and published ''Après le cubisme'' in 1918.
Le Corbusier's ambition had been to translate the properties of his own style of Cubism to architecture. Between 1918 and 1922, Le Corbusier concentrated his efforts on Purist theory and painting. In 1922, Le Corbusier and his cousin Jeanneret opened a studio in Paris at 35 rue de Sèvres. His theoretical studies soon advanced into many different architectural projects.
La Maison Cubiste (Cubist House)
At the 1912
Salon d'Automne
The Salon d'Automne (; en, Autumn Salon), or Société du Salon d'automne, is an art exhibition held annually in Paris, France. Since 2011, it is held on the Champs-Élysées, between the Grand Palais and the Petit Palais, in mid-October. The f ...
an architectural installation was exhibited that quickly became known as ''Maison Cubiste'' (Cubist House), with architecture by
Raymond Duchamp-Villon and interior decoration by
André Mare along with a group of collaborators. Metzinger and Gleizes in ''
Du "Cubisme"'', written during the assemblage of the "Maison Cubiste", wrote about the autonomous nature of art, stressing the point that decorative considerations should not govern the spirit of art. Decorative work, to them, was the "antithesis of the picture". "The true picture" wrote Metzinger and Gleizes, "bears its ''raison d'être'' within itself. It can be moved from a church to a
drawing-room, from a museum to a study. Essentially independent, necessarily complete, it need not immediately satisfy the mind: on the contrary, it should lead it, little by little, towards the fictitious depths in which the coordinative light resides. It does not harmonize with this or that ensemble; it harmonizes with things in general, with the universe: it is an organism...".
''La Maison Cubiste'' was a fully furnished model house, with a facade, a staircase, wrought iron banisters, and two rooms: a living room—the ''Salon Bourgeois'', where paintings by Marcel Duchamp, Metzinger (''Woman with a Fan''), Gleizes, Laurencin and Léger were hung, and a bedroom. It was an example of ''L'art décoratif'', a home within which Cubist art could be displayed in the comfort and style of modern, bourgeois life. Spectators at the Salon d'Automne passed through the plaster facade, designed by Duchamp-Villon, to the two furnished rooms. This architectural installation was subsequently exhibited at the 1913
Armory Show, New York, Chicago and Boston, listed in the catalogue of the New York exhibit as Raymond Duchamp-Villon, number 609, and entitled ''"Facade architectural, plaster"'' (''Façade architecturale'').
The furnishings, wallpaper, upholstery and carpets of the interior were designed by
André Mare, and were early examples of the influence of cubism on what would become
Art Deco
Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unit ...
. They were composed of very brightly colored roses and other floral patterns in stylized geometric forms.
Mare called the living room in which Cubist paintings were hung the ''Salon Bourgeois''. Léger described this name as 'perfect'. In a letter to Mare prior to the exhibition Léger wrote: "Your idea is absolutely splendid for us, really splendid. People will see Cubism in its domestic setting, which is very important.
"Mare's ensembles were accepted as frames for Cubist works because they allowed paintings and sculptures their independence", Christopher Green wrote, "creating a play of contrasts, hence the involvement not only of Gleizes and Metzinger themselves, but of Marie Laurencin, the Duchamp brothers (Raymond Duchamp-Villon designed the facade) and Mare's old friends Léger and Roger La Fresnaye".
In 1927, Cubists
Joseph Csaky,
Jacques Lipchitz
Jacques Lipchitz (26 May 1973) was a Cubism, Cubist sculptor. Lipchitz retained highly figurative and legible components in his work leading up to 1915–16, after which naturalist and descriptive elements were muted, dominated by a synthetic sty ...
,
Louis Marcoussis,
Henri Laurens, the sculptor
Gustave Miklos, and others collaborated in the decoration of a Studio House, rue Saint-James,
Neuilly-sur-Seine
Neuilly-sur-Seine (; literally 'Neuilly on Seine'), also known simply as Neuilly, is a commune in the department of Hauts-de-Seine in France, just west of Paris. Immediately adjacent to the city, the area is composed of mostly select residentia ...
, designed by the architect Paul Ruaud and owned by the French fashion designer
Jacques Doucet, also a collector of
Post-Impressionist and
Cubist paintings (including ''
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
''Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'' (''The Young Ladies of Avignon'', originally titled ''The Brothel of Avignon'') is a large oil painting created in 1907 by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso. The work, part of the permanent collection of the Museum o ...
'', which he bought directly from Picasso's studio). Laurens designed the fountain, Csaky designed Doucet's staircase, Lipchitz made the fireplace mantel, and Marcoussis made a Cubist rug.
Czech Cubist architecture
The original Cubist architecture is very rare. Cubism was applied to architecture only in
Bohemia (today
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. Th ...
) and especially in its capital,
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
.
Czech architects were the first and only ones to ever design original Cubist buildings.
Cubist architecture flourished for the most part between 1910 and 1914, but the Cubist or Cubism-influenced buildings were also built after
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
. After the war, the architectural style called ''Rondo-Cubism'' was developed in Prague fusing the Cubist architecture with round shapes.
In their theoretical rules, the Cubist architects expressed the requirement of dynamism, which would surmount the matter and calm contained in it, through a creative idea, so that the result would evoke feelings of dynamism and expressive plasticity in the viewer. This should be achieved by shapes derived from pyramids, cubes and prisms, by arrangements and compositions of oblique surfaces, mainly triangular, sculpted facades in protruding crystal-like units, reminiscent of the so-called
diamond cut, or even cavernous that are reminiscent of the late
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture (or pointed architecture) is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. I ...
. In this way, the entire surfaces of the facades including even the gables and dormers are sculpted. The grilles as well as other architectural ornaments attain a three-dimensional form. Thus, new forms of windows and doors were also created, e. g.
hexagonal windows.
[ Czech Cubist architects also designed Cubist furniture.
The leading Cubist architects were Pavel Janák, Josef Gočár, Vlastislav Hofman, ]Emil Králíček
Emil Králíček (11 October 1877 – 26 March 1930) was a Czech architect.
Králíček studied at Prague Industrial Arts School and in the offices of Antonin Balsanek in Prague and Joseph Maria Olbrich in Darmstadt. He began designing in Prag ...
and Josef Chochol
Josef Chochol (13 December 1880, Písek – 6 July 1956, Prague) was a Czech architect.
Education
Chochol studied architecture at the polytechnic in Prague (1908–24), then at the academy in Vienna, under the guidance of Otto Wagner (1907 ...
.[ They worked mostly in Prague but also in other Bohemian towns. The best-known Cubist building is the House of the Black Madonna in the ]Old Town of Prague
The Old Town of Prague ( cs, Staré Město pražské, german: Prager Altstadt) is a medieval settlement of Prague, Czech Republic. It was separated from the outside by a semi-circular moat and wall, connected to the Vltava river at both of ...
built in 1912 by Josef Gočár with the only Cubist café in the world, Grand Café Orient.[ Vlastislav Hofman built the entrance pavilions of ]Ďáblice Cemetery
Ďáblice cemetery ( cs, Ďáblický hřbitov) is a graveyard in Ďáblice municipal district, Prague. The entrance pavilions were designed by Vlastislav Hofman.
The cemetery was opened in 1914 and over 20,000 registered graves are located here ...
in 1912–1914, Josef Chochol designed several residential houses under Vyšehrad. A Cubist streetlamp has also been preserved near the Wenceslas Square
Wenceslas Square ( Czech: , colloquially ''Václavák'' ) is one of the main city squares and the centre of the business and cultural communities in the New Town of Prague, Czech Republic. Many historical events occurred there, and it is a tra ...
, designed by Emil Králíček in 1912, who also built the Diamond House in the New Town of Prague
The New Town ( cs, Nové Město) is a quarter in the city of Prague in the Czech Republic. New Town is the youngest and largest of the five independent (from the Middle Ages until 1784) towns that today comprise the historic center of modern Prag ...
around 1913.
Cubism in other fields
The influence of cubism extended to other artistic fields, outside painting and sculpture. In literature, the written works of Gertrude Stein
Gertrude Stein (February 3, 1874 – July 27, 1946) was an American novelist, poet, playwright, and art collector. Born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the Allegheny West (Pittsburgh), Allegheny West neighborhood and raised in Oakland, Calif ...
employ repetition and repetitive phrases as building blocks in both passages and whole chapters. Most of Stein's important works utilize this technique, including the novel ''The Making of Americans
''The Making of Americans: Being a History of a Family's Progress'' is a modernist novel by Gertrude Stein. The novel traces the genealogy, history, and psychological development of members of the fictional Hersland and Dehning families. Stein a ...
'' (1906–08). Not only were they the first important patrons of Cubism, Gertrude Stein and her brother Leo
Leo or Léo may refer to:
Acronyms
* Law enforcement officer
* Law enforcement organisation
* ''Louisville Eccentric Observer'', a free weekly newspaper in Louisville, Kentucky
* Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity
Arts an ...
were also important influences on Cubism as well. In turn, Picasso was an important influence on Stein's writing. In the field of American fiction, William Faulkner
William Cuthbert Faulkner (; September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was an American writer known for his novels and short stories set in the fictional Yoknapatawpha County, based on Lafayette County, Mississippi, where Faulkner spent most ...
's 1930 novel '' As I Lay Dying'' can be read as an interaction with the cubist mode. The novel features narratives of the diverse experiences of 15 characters which, when taken together, produce a single cohesive body.
The poets generally associated with Cubism are Guillaume Apollinaire, Blaise Cendrars, Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (, , ; 5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, playwright, novelist, designer, filmmaker, visual artist and critic. He was one of the foremost creatives of the s ...
, Max Jacob, André Salmon and Pierre Reverdy
Pierre Reverdy (; 13 September 1889 – 17 June 1960) was a French poet whose works were inspired by and subsequently proceeded to influence the provocative art movements of the day, Surrealism, Dadaism and Cubism. The loneliness and spiritual ap ...
. As American poet Kenneth Rexroth
Kenneth Charles Marion Rexroth (1905–1982) was an American poet, translator, and critical essayist. He is regarded as a central figure in the San Francisco Renaissance, and paved the groundwork for the movement. Although he did not consider ...
explains, Cubism in poetry "is the conscious, deliberate dissociation and recombination of elements into a new artistic entity made self-sufficient by its rigorous architecture. This is quite different from the free association of the Surrealists and the combination of unconscious utterance and political nihilism of Dada." Nonetheless, the Cubist poets' influence on both Cubism and the later movements of Dada
Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...
and Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to ...
was profound; Louis Aragon
Louis Aragon (, , 3 October 1897 – 24 December 1982) was a French poet who was one of the leading voices of the surrealist movement in France. He co-founded with André Breton and Philippe Soupault the surrealist review '' Littérature''. He w ...
, founding member of Surrealism, said that for Breton, Soupault, Éluard and himself, Reverdy was "our immediate elder, the exemplary poet." Though not as well remembered as the Cubist painters, these poets continue to influence and inspire; American poets John Ashbery and Ron Padgett
Ron Padgett (born June 17, 1942, Tulsa, Oklahoma) is an American poet, essayist, fiction writer, translator, and a member of the New York School. ''Great Balls of Fire'', Padgett's first full-length collection of poems, was published in 1969. He ...
have recently produced new translations of Reverdy's work. Wallace Stevens' "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird
"Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird" is a poem from Wallace Stevens's first book of poetry, ''Harmonium.'' The poem consists of thirteen short, separate sections, each of which mentions blackbirds in some way. Although inspired by haiku, non ...
" is also said to demonstrate how cubism's multiple perspectives can be translated into poetry.
John Berger said: "It is almost impossible to exaggerate the importance of Cubism. It was a revolution in the visual arts as great as that which took place in the early Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass id ...
. Its effects on later art, on film, and on architecture are already so numerous that we hardly notice them."[Berger, John. (1965). The Success and Failure of Picasso. Penguin Books, Ltd. p. 73. .]
Gallery
File:Georges Braque, 1909-10, La guitare (Mandora, La Mandore), oil on canvas, 71.1 x 55.9 cm, Tate Modern, London.jpg, Georges Braque
Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...
, 1909–10, ''La guitare (Mandora, La Mandore)'', oil on canvas, 71.1 x 55.9 cm, Tate Modern
Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It ...
, London
File:Albert Gleizes, 1910, Femme aux Phlox, oil on canvas, 81 x 100 cm, exhibited Armory Show, New York, 1913, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston..jpg, Albert Gleizes, 1910, '' La Femme aux Phlox (Woman with Phlox)'', oil on canvas, 81 x 100 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), is an art museum located in the Houston Museum District of Houston, Texas. With the recent completion of an eight-year campus redevelopment project, including the opening of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Bui ...
. Exhibited in Room 41, Salon des Indépendants 1911, Armory Show 1913
File:Violin and Candlestick.jpg, Georges Braque
Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...
, 1910, ''Violin and Candlestick'', oil on canvas, 60.96 x 50.17 cm, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
The San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) is a modern and contemporary art museum located in San Francisco, California. A nonprofit organization, SFMOMA holds an internationally recognized collection of modern and contemporary art, and was ...
File:Jean Metzinger, 1910-11, Deux Nus (Two Nudes, Two Women), oil on canvas, 92 x 66 cm, Gothenburg Museum of Art, Sweden.jpg, Jean Metzinger, 1910–11, '' Deux Nus'' (''Two Nudes'', ''Two Women''), oil on canvas, 92 x 66 cm, Gothenburg Museum of Art, Sweden. Exhibited at the first Cubist manifestation, Room 41 of the 1911 Salon des Indépendants, Paris
File:Robert Delaunay, 1910, La ville no. 2, oil on canvas, 146 x 114 cm, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.jpg, Robert Delaunay, 1910–11, ''La ville no. 2'', oil on canvas, 146 x 114 cm, Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris
File:Henri Le Fauconnier, 1910-11, L'Abondance (Abundance), oil on canvas, 191 x 123 cm (75.25 x 48.5 in.), Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.jpg, Henri Le Fauconnier, 1910–11, ''L'Abondance (Abundance)'', oil on canvas, 191 x 123 cm, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag
File:Marcel Duchamp, 1911, La sonate (Sonata), oil on canvas, 145.1 x 113.3 cm, Philadelphia Museum of Art.jpg, Marcel Duchamp
Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...
, 1911, ''La sonate (Sonata)'', oil on canvas, 145.1 x 113.3 cm, Philadelphia Museum of Art
The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMoA) is an art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at the northwest end of the Benjamin F ...
File:Pablo Picasso, 1911, La Femme au Violon, oil on canvas, private collection, on long-term loan to Bavarian State Painting Collections, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich.jpg, Pablo Picasso, 1911, ''La Femme au Violon'', oil on canvas, private collection, on long-term loan to Bavarian State Painting Collections, Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich
File:Fernand Léger, 1911-1912, Les Fumeurs (The Smokers), oil on canvas, 129.2 x 96.5 cm, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York..jpg, Fernand Léger, 1911–1912, ''Les Fumeurs (The Smokers)'', oil on canvas, 129.2 x 96.5 cm, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...
, New York
File:Georges Braque, 1911-12, Man with a Guitar (Figure, L’homme à la guitare), oil on canvas, 116.2 x 80.9 cm (45.75 x 31.9 in), Museum of Modern Art, New York.jpg, Georges Braque
Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...
, 1911–12, ''Man with a Guitar (Figure, L’homme à la guitare)'', oil on canvas, 116.2 x 80.9 cm, Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...
File:Jacques Villon, 1912, Girl at the Piano, oil on canvas, 129.2 x 96.4 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York...jpg, Jacques Villon, 1912, ''Girl at the Piano (Fillette au piano)'', oil on canvas, 129.2 x 96.4 cm, oval, Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...
, New York. Exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show
File:Francis Picabia, 1912, La Source, The Spring, oil on canvas, 249.6 x 249.3 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York. Exhibited, 1912 Salon d'Automne, Paris.jpg, Francis Picabia, 1912, ''La Source'' (''The Spring''), oil on canvas, 249.6 x 249.3 cm, Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues.
It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, ...
, New York
File:Fernand Léger, 1912-13, Nude Model in the Studio (Le modèle nu dans l'atelier), oil on burlap, 128.6 x 95.9 cm, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim.jpg, Fernand Léger, 1912–13, ''Nude Model in the Studio (Le modèle nu dans l'atelier)'', oil on burlap, 128.6 x 95.9 cm, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...
, New York
File:Albert Gleizes, 1912-13, Les Joueurs de football (Football Players), oil on canvas, 225.4 x 183 cm, National Gallery of Art.jpg, Albert Gleizes, 1912–13, '' Les Joueurs de football (Football Players)'', oil on canvas, 225.4 x 183 cm, National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of ch ...
, Washington D.C.
File:Jean Metzinger, 1912-1913, L'Oiseau bleu, (The Blue Bird) oil on canvas, 230 x 196 cm, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris..jpg, Jean Metzinger, 1912–1913, '' L'Oiseau bleu (The Blue Bird)'', oil on canvas, 230 x 196 cm, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris. Exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants, 1913
File:Femme en chemise assise dans un fauteuil.jpg, Pablo Picasso
Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is ...
, 1913–14, ''Femme assise dans un fauteuil (Eva), Woman in an Armchair'', oil on canvas, 149.9 x 99.4 cm, Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection
File:Juan Gris, 1915, Nature morte à la nappe à carreaux (Still Life with Checked Tablecloth), oil on canvas, 116.5 x 89.3 cm.jpg, Juan Gris, 1915, ''Nature morte à la nappe à carreaux (Still Life with Checked Tablecloth)'', oil and graphite on canvas, 116.5 x 89.2 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 100 ...
, Leonard A. Lauder collection
File:RamónGómezdelaSerna.JPG, Diego Rivera
Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez, known as Diego Rivera (; December 8, 1886 – November 24, 1957), was a prominent Mexican painter. His large frescoes helped establish the ...
, 1915, '' Portrait of Ramón Gómez de la Serna'', 109.6 × 90.2 cm. Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires
File:Jean Metzinger, 1916, Femme au miroir (Femme à sa toilette, Lady at her Dressing Table), oil on canvas, 92.4 x 65.1 cm, private collection.jpg, Jean Metzinger, April 1916, '' Femme au miroir (Femme à sa toilette, Lady at her Dressing Table)'', oil on canvas, 92.4 x 65.1 cm, private collection
File:Portrait of Josette 1916 Juan Gris.jpg, Juan Gris, October 1916, ''Portrait of Josette'', oil on canvas, 116 x 73 cm, Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid
File:Pablo Picasso, 1918, Arlequin au violon (Harlequin with Violin), oil on canvas, 142 x 100.3 cm, The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio.jpeg, Pablo Picasso, 1918, ''Arlequin au violon (Harlequin with Violin)'', oil on canvas, 142 x 100.3 cm, The Cleveland Museum of Art
The Cleveland Museum of Art (CMA) is an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio, located in the Wade Park District, in the University Circle neighborhood on the city's east side. Internationally renowned for its substantial holdings of Asian and Egypt ...
, Ohio
File:Gino Severini, 1919, Bohémien Jouant de L'Accordéon (The Accordion Player).jpg, Gino Severini, 1919, ''Bohémien Jouant de L'Accordéon (The Accordion Player)'', Museo del Novecento, Milan
File:Albert Gleizes, 1920, Femme au gant noir (Woman with Black Glove), oil on canvas, 126 x 100 cm. Private collection.jpg, Albert Gleizes, 1920, '' Femme au gant noir (Woman with Black Glove)'', oil on canvas, 126 x 100 cm, National Gallery of Australia
The National Gallery of Australia (NGA), formerly the Australian National Gallery, is the national art museum of Australia as well as one of the largest art museums in Australia, holding more than 166,000 works of art. Located in Canberra in t ...
Press articles and reviews
File:Albert Gleizes, Juan Gris, Jean Metzinger, El Correo Catalán, 25 April 1912.jpg, Paintings by Albert Gleizes, 1910–11, ''Paysage, Landscape''; Juan Gris (drawing); Jean Metzinger, c.1911, '' Nature morte, Compotier et cruche décorée de cerfs''. Published on the front page of ''El Correo Catalán'', 25 April 1912
File:Alexander Archipenko, Jean Metzinger, Au Salon des Indépendants, Le Petit Comtois, 13 March 1914.jpg, (center) Jean Metzinger, c.1913, '' Le Fumeur (Man with Pipe)'', Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; (left) Alexander Archipenko, 1914, ''Danseuse du Médrano (Médrano II)'', (right) Archipenko, 1913, ''Pierrot-carrousel'', Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Published in ''Le Petit Comtois'', 13 March 1914
File:Fernand Léger, Jean Metzinger, Alexander Archipenko, Les Annales politiques et littéraires, n. 1529, 13 October 1912.jpg, Paintings by Fernand Léger, 1912, ''La Femme en Bleu, Woman in Blue'', Kunstmuseum Basel; Jean Metzinger, 1912, ''Dancer in a café
Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoi ...
'', Albright-Knox Art Gallery; and sculpture by Alexander Archipenko, 1912, ''La Vie Familiale, Family Life'' (destroyed). Published in '' Les Annales politiques et littéraires'', n. 1529, 13 October 1912
File:Gino Severini, La Danse du Pan-Pan, L’autobus, Les Annales politiques et littéraires, 14 March 1920.jpg, Paintings by Gino Severini, 1911, ''La Danse du Pan-Pan'', and Severini, 1913, ''L’autobus''. Published in "Les Annales politiques et littéraires", ''Le Paradoxe Cubiste'', 14 March 1920
File:Gino Severini, Albert Gleizes, Luigi Russolo, Les Annales politiques et littéraires, n. 1916, 14 March 1920.jpg, Paintings by Gino Severini, 1911, ''Souvenirs de Voyage''; Albert Gleizes, 1912, '' Man on a Balcony, L’Homme au balcon''; Severini, 1912–13, ''Portrait de Mlle Jeanne Paul-Fort''; Luigi Russolo, 1911–12, ''La Révolte''. Published in "Les Annales politiques et littéraires", ''Le Paradoxe Cubiste'' (continued), n. 1916, 14 March 1920
File:Henri Le Fauconnier (L'Abondance), Jean Metzinger, (Le Goûter), Robert Delaunay (La Tour Eiffel), La Veu de Catalunya, 1 February 1912.jpg, Paintings by Henri Le Fauconnier, 1910–11, ''L'Abondance'', Haags Gemeentemuseum; Jean Metzinger, 1911, '' Le goûter (Tea Time)'', Philadelphia Museum of Art; Robert Delaunay, 1910–11, ''La Tour Eiffel''. Published in ''La Veu de Catalunya'', 1 February 1912
File:Jean Metzinger, Gino Severini, Albert Gleizes, Les Annales politiques et littéraires, Sommaire du n. 1536, décembre 1912.jpg, Jean Metzinger, 1910–11, ''Paysage'' (whereabouts unknown); Gino Severini, 1911, ''La danseuse obsedante''; Albert Gleizes, 1912, '' l'Homme au Balcon, Man on a Balcony (Portrait of Dr. Théo Morinaud)''. Published in "Les Annales politiques et littéraires", ''Sommaire'' du n. 1536, décembre 1912
File:Jean Metzinger, Juan Gris, Marie Laurencin, August Agero, Veu de Catalunya, 25 April 1912.jpg, Jean Metzinger, c.1911, '' Nature morte, Compotier et cruche décorée de cerfs''; Juan Gris, 1911,
Study for Man in a Café
'; Marie Laurencin, c.1911, ''Testa ab plechs''; August Agero, sculpture, ''Bust''; Juan Gris, 1912, ''Guitar and Glasses'', or ''Banjo and Glasses''. Published in ''Veu de Catalunya'', 25 April 1912
File:Jean Metzinger, Le Goûter (Tea Time), published in Le Journal, 30 September 1911.jpg, Jean Metzinger, 1911, '' Le goûter (Tea Time)'', Philadelphia Museum of Art. Published in ''Le Journal'', 30 September 1911
File:Juan Gris, August Agero, Jean Metzinger, Marie Laurencin, Albert Gleizes, La Publicidad, 26 April 1912.jpg, Paintings by Juan Gris, ''Bodegón''; August Agero (sculpture); Jean Metzinger, 1910–11, '' Deux Nus, Two Nudes'', Gothenburg Museum of Art; Marie Laurencin (acrylic); Albert Gleizes, 1911, '' Paysage, Landscape''. Published in ''La Publicidad'', 26 April 1912
File:Umberto Boccioni (La rue entre dans la maison), Luigi Russolo (Souvenir d’une nuit), Les Annales politiques et littéraires, 1 December 1912.jpg, Umberto Boccioni, 1911, ''La rue entre dans la maison''; Luigi Russolo, 1911, ''Souvenir d’une nuit''. Published in ''Les Annales politiques et littéraires'', 1 December 1912
File:Francis Picabia paintings published in New York Tribune, 9 March 1913.jpg, Francis Picabia, paintings published in the ''New York Tribune'', 9 March 1913. Picabia held his first one-man show in New York, ''Exhibition of New York studies by Francis Picabia'', at 291 art gallery (formerly ''Little Galleries of the Photo-Secession''), March 17 - April 5, 1913
File:Joseph Csaky, Robert Delaunay, Henry Ottmann, The Sun (New York), 15 March 1914.jpg, Joseph Csaky, ''Head'', 1913, plaster lost; Robert Delaunay, ''Hommage à Blériot'', 1914 (Kunstmuseum Basel); Henri Ottmann
Henry Ottmann (also Henri Ottmann) (10 April 1877 – 1 June 1927) was a French painter and printmaker.
Biography
Henry Ottmann was born on 10 April 1877 in Ancenis (Loire-Atlantique). He made his debut at the Salon La Libre Esthétique i ...
, ''The Hat Seller'', published in ''The Sun'', New York, 15 March 1914
File:Albert Gleizes, Jean Crotti, Marcel Duchamp, The Sun, New York, 2 January 1916.jpg, Albert Gleizes, (left) in front of his painting ''Jazz''; Jean Crotti
Jean Crotti (24 April 1878 – 30 January 1958) was a French painter.
Crotti was born in Bulle, Fribourg, Switzerland. He first studied in Munich, Germany at the School of Decorative Arts, then at age 23 moved to Paris to study art at t ...
(center) studying his ''Femme à la toque rouge''; Marcel Duchamp
Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...
(right) at his drawing board, in front of Jacques Villon's ''Portrait de M. J. B. peintre'', ''The Sun'', New York, 2 January 1916
File:Albert Gleizes, Marcel Duchamp, Jean Crotti, Hugo Robus, Stanton MacDonald-Wright, Frances Simpson Stevens, Every Week, No. 14, April 2, 1917.jpg, Albert Gleizes (with ''Chal Post'', 1915); Marcel Duchamp
Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...
(with his brother Jacques Villon's ''Portrait de M. J. B. peintre (Jacques Bon)'' 1914); Jean Crotti
Jean Crotti (24 April 1878 – 30 January 1958) was a French painter.
Crotti was born in Bulle, Fribourg, Switzerland. He first studied in Munich, Germany at the School of Decorative Arts, then at age 23 moved to Paris to study art at t ...
; Hugo Robus; Stanton Macdonald-Wright; and Frances Simpson Stevens (center), ''Every Week'', Vol. 4, No. 14, April 2, 1917, p. 14
File:Jean Metzinger, 1916, Femme au miroir (Femme à sa toilette, Lady at her Dressing Table), published in The Sun, New York, 28 April 1918.jpg, Jean Metzinger, April 1916, '' Femme au miroir (Femme à sa toilette, Lady at her Dressing Table)'', ''The Sun'', New York, Sunday 28 April 1918
See also
* Fourth dimension in art
* Precisionism
* Proto-Cubism
* Rayonism
* Section d'Or
* Vorticism
References
Further reading
* Alfred H. Barr, Jr., ''Cubism and Abstract Art,'' New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1936.
*
*
* Paolo Vincenzo Genovese, ''Cubismo in architettura'', Mancosu Editore, Roma, 2010. In Italian.
* John Golding, ''Cubism: A History and an Analysis, 1907-1914,'' New York: Wittenborn, 1959.
* Richardson, John. ''A Life Of Picasso, The Cubist Rebel 1907–1916.'' New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991.
* Mark Antliff and Patricia Leighten, ''A Cubism Reader, Documents and Criticism, 1906–1914'', The University of Chicago Press, 2008
* Christopher Green, ''Cubism and its Enemies, Modern Movements and Reaction in French Art, 1916–28'', Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1987
* Mikhail Lifshitz
''The Crisis of Ugliness: From Cubism to Pop-Art''
Translated and with an Introduction by David Riff. Leiden: BRILL, 2018 (originally published in Russian by Iskusstvo, 1968)
* Daniel Robbins, ''Sources of Cubism and Futurism'', Art Journal, Vol. 41, No. 4, (Winter 1981)
* Cécile Debray, Françoise Lucbert, ''La Section d'or, 1912-1920-1925'', Musées de Châteauroux, Musée Fabre, exhibition catalogue, Éditions Cercle d'art, Paris, 2000
* Ian Johnston, '' Preliminary Notes on Cubist Architecture in Prague'', 2004
External links
Cubism, Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Cubist pioneer Diego Rivera
''Cubism'', Agence Photographique de la Réunion des musées nationaux et du Grand Palais des Champs-Elysées (RMN)
Cubism, Guggenheim Collection Online
Index of Historic Collectors and Dealers of Cubism, Leonard A. Lauder Research Center for Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Elizabeth Carlson, ''Cubist Fashion: Mainstreaming Modernism after the Armory''
Winterthur Portfolio, Vol. 48, No. 1 (Spring 2014), pp. 1–28.
{{Authority control (arts)
Art movements
Modern art
Abstract art
Cubes
20th century in art
20th century in the arts
Art movements in Europe
French artist groups and collectives