Cubism

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Picasso 'Man with a Pipe' (1911-12)

Analytical Cubism

  • Views presented simultaneously as kaleidoscope of line and colour
  • From Kahnweiler's 'Rise of Cubism'- mutliple views of an object and juxtaposing them
  • Rejection of single point perspective, use of lettering pre-empting synthetic

Description

  • Strong, rectlinear lines, traditional pyramdial composition, oval canvas rejects illusionism
  • Muted greys, ochres, browns, lettering of EST and AL, gradation of tones (partly lit)
  • Some objects recognisable e.g. pipe, moustache, paper, sleeves

Context

  • 1905 Eistein's Theory of Relativity said time/ space elastic, Bergson's 'Matter and Memory' (1869) said conciousness an accumilation of experience
  • 1870-1910 technological progress, artists looking for ways to reject changes
  • 'The world doesn't make sense so why should I paint pictures that do'
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Braque 'Fruit Bowl and Glass' (1912)

Synthetic Cubism

  • Unusual realities, often in round, less fragmented, more symbolic, colourful/ textural
  • Focus on decorative- objects as signs, symbols, emblems

Materials/ techniques

  • Main subject charcoal, less than surroundings, faux bois texture with grained comb and sand
  • Gouache on white board, papier collage (low art), physical projections like relief sculpture
  • Trompe l'oeil of using realistic imagery e.g. fruit to created optical illusion

Ideas on art

  • Painter decorator- experimented with llithography, engraving, sculpture
  • Trompe l'oeil to make pictorial effects resembling wood/ marble
  • Charcoal overlaps wallpaper- what in fore/background? Pun about objects in space
  • Objects all meaningless as individuals but meaning together
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Picasso 'Glass of Absinthe' (1914)

Description

  • Child-like, abstracted glass, use of ready made absinthe spoon
  • Spoon on top, iced water is dripped over the sugar cube into the absinthe
  • Untraditional painted bronze, glass tilts, voids and spaces, rings show how full it is

Context

  • Absinthe popular in bohemian cafe circles, very addictive
  • Representation of face after absinthe, formalist excericise in hallucination and intoxication
  • 'You should have some idea of what you are going to do, but it should be a vague one'
  • Painted bronze- return to classical/ medieval sculpture, influence of Gaugin
  • Einstein's ideas of instability of time/space, Bergson- reality a flux of sensual experience
  • Princet and Poincake's theories about juxtaposition of objects in space
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