An example of Cubism
The Cubist period of the early twentieth century represents one of the most innovative periods in art history. The artists of the movement pioneered an entirely new style of painting, sweeping away the idea of three-dimensional reality and working in two dimensions, fragmenting and reassembling the individual parts of the subject. They depicted the physical world in vibrant patches of color meant to represent the emotional conception of the subject. The Cubist style of painting met with mixed reviews but the art world eventually embraced abstraction.
History
Driven by the innovative paintings of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, the Cubist art movement began in 1907. The movement splits into two distinct phases--the Analytic period (1907-1912) and the Synthetic period (1913 through the 1920s). Cubism of the Analytic period focused on dissecting facets of a subject and "analyzing" them by rearrangement. Synthetic Cubist art depicted the idea of subjects as broad and simple forms in bright, basic colors.
Significance
The artists of the Cubist movement’s made a breakthrough in the realm of art with a new way of looking at the world. The artists gained inspiration from primitive art and cave drawings that represented the first ideas of reality as depicted by humans. Other than Primitivism, most of the artwork before the Cubist period concentrated on duplicating reality. Cubism created a new art form where, rather than presenting three-dimensional reality, subjects were fragmented and presented from several points of view at the same time.
Effects
Cubism introduced the art world to the theory of visual language, which interprets not only an object but the thoughts and emotions that underlie the subject. The work of early Cubists spawned an entire generation of abstract artists. Cubist painting led to conceptual sculpture and other mediums. Cubism liberated artists from classic form, which paved the way for Surrealism and pure Abstract art. The movement also affected modern architecture, which resulted in buildings and furniture that had severely constructed lines.
Identification
Cubist pieces have broad planes of color, sharp angles and abstract depictions of objects and people. Analytic pieces depict recognizable subjects, while the subjects of Synthetic paintings have imperceptible images. All Cubist art depicts reality in fractured geometric forms. Meant to convey images outside of our visual range, Cubist pieces attempt to evoke emotion and ideas through form. Famous Cubists artists besides Picasso and Braque include Robert Delaunay, Marcel Duchamp, Fernand L ger, Jean Metzinger and Francis Picabia.
Expert Insight
At first, Cubist art did not receive a warm reception by early 20th century society. Criticized and frustrated, Picasso said, "Cubism is no different from any other school of painting. The same principles and the same elements are common to all. The fact that for a long time cubism has not been understood and that even today there are people who cannot see anything in it, means nothing. I do not read English, and an English book is a blank to me. This does not mean that the English language does not exist, and why should I blame anyone but myself if I cannot understand what I know nothing about?"
