Analytical Cubism -The Meaning of Cubism

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Analytical Cubism

The Meaning of Cubism

a) What was the subject matter of Cubism?

Cubists rejected such subject as remote and often incomprehensible and
insisted instead that art should deal with the real everyday world: natural
or man-made and with a common, everyday human experience. Thus, the aim
is to celebrate the simple pleasures and satisfactions of the everyday
life and the ordinary daily environment of the artists and his audience.

Cubism had the repertoire of basic motifs, established by the Impressionists
and Post- Impressionism * notably simple figure subjects, landscape and
townscape, and still life, but the dominant subject of Cubism is still-life.
The source material of Cubist still-life seems to fall into three broad
principal categories: the pleasures of the cafe drinking, smoking, cards,
newspapers; the pleasures of the table, almost always represented by the
fruit course; and, perhaps, most important of all, the pleasures of music.
(the violin, the Spanish guitar, the mandolin, the clarinet.) These categories,
it should be said, tend to overlap and interweave and, of course, Cubist
still-life contains references to many other aspects of life.

b) Why is Cubism often described as "painting about painting"?

Cubist's painting was primarily concerned not with lifelike representation
but with the depiction of forms from many angles at once. In Cubism this
modernist obsession with form is so prominent as to become a major part
of the subject matter of the art * on this level Cubism may be said to
be painting about painting or, a kind of game with the idea of representing
the three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional surface and with the
established traditions of such representation.

c) Why do Cubist paintings also have the character of poetry?

The Cubist painting is presented by pattern of overlapping fragments
* planes * amongst which appear hints, references and allusions to reality.
These hints and allusions are often ambiguous or multiple-referential,
or simply impossible to identity at all with any certainty. Since the
normal spatial relationship is not observed, the elements of the picture
may appear in strange and unexpected relation. Thus cubist art, has something
of the character of poetry, presenting an image of the world that is meditative,
haunting, lyrical, mysterious and sometimes obscure.

d) Define Cubism as an artistic style.

One of the most influential art movements (1907-1914) of the twentieth
century, Cubism was developed by Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1882-1973) and
Georges Braque (French, 1882-1963). In Cubism the subject matter is broken
up, analyzed, and reassembled in an abstracted form. There were five phases
in the development of Cubism: Facet Cubism, Analytical Cubism, Hermetic,
Collage and Synthetic Cubism. Much of the origination of Cubism came from
interest in the works of Paul Cezanne (French, 1839-1906) and Georges
Seurat (French, 1859-1991), and in African sculpture.

e) Why did the Cubists abandon Renaissance naturalism?

The cubists was simply used a new way to represent the three-dimensional
reality on a two-dimensional surface. The old way, the naturalism of the
Renaissance, depended in particular upon one fundamental assumption *
that everything in the picture is seen from a single, fixed viewpoint.
Cubism abandoned this rule.

The massive theoretical weakness of Renaissance naturalism * that it can
only show one side of things, can be eliminated by the use of multiple
viewpoints of Cubism.

Another reason for the Cubists' abandonment of Renaissance naturalism
was that it was a method of painting which produced and illusion of reality.
A philosophical dislike of illusionism is an absolutely central characteristic
of modern art from its earliest beginnings.

The early years of this century in Europe were years of great restlessness
and change of dramatic and far-reaching innovation and discovery in technology
and science. Cubism maybe said to reflect in some way the new views of
the nature of reality revealed by the discoveries of scientists. However,
it should also be stressed hat there was never any direct relationship
between the Cubism of Braque and Picasso and the contemporary world of
science, technology and politics.

f) In what ways are Cubist pictures harmonious?

Harmony means bringing together all the parts of a composition into a
satisfying relationship and a high degree of harmony in a pictorial composition
can produce great beauty of visual effect.

Many Cubist works achieve a very high degree of harmony. Indeed harmoniousness
is built into the whole concept of Cubist pictorial art as a structure
of linked or overlapping planes into which everything in the picture *
objects and background * is integrated.

Cubist pictures are characterized by an overall harmonious quality, there
is no jumps from objects to background. The basic harmoniousness of Cubist
painting is achieved by the very close range of low key colours used *
greys, browns, beiges and soft greens.