Cubism - Critical Analysis and Response (Contextual Studies)

The Birth Of Cubism

Two European Artists, Spanish Pablo Picasso (1881 - 1973) and French peer Georges Braque (1882 - 1963) are widely regarded as the creators of Cubism.  Following on from Post Impressionism and inspired by Primitivism, these two artists would take these ideas and study them, really focusing to develop their own interruption.  Both artists would spend years furthering Cubism.  Artists such as Paul Cezanne had been experimenting with fractured perspective, trying to show landscapes and scenery from various angles and times in the same image.  Initially his work was subtle, but soon fractured elements in his compositions would show through, resulting in geometric patterns and shapes.  Picasso would be the first to work with these shapes, exploiting them further.

The Young Ladies of Avignon (Les Demoiselles d'Avignon) by Pablo Picasso is widely considered to be the first true Cubism painting.  Painted in 1907, it depicts five nude women outside a brothel in Barcelona.  The most interesting thing about the image is the way that Picasso shaped the women; using basic two-dimensional geometric shapes to represent their form.  On top of this, shading was almost completely ignored, opting for flat colours and lines to depict very minor light details.  In addition to this approach to form, Picasso used some odd inspiration for the faces.  Whilst some of the faces were done in a style more local and natural to Picasso, some were done in a rather unique and distorted way.  Picasso cited African Masks as his inspiration for these designs and styles.  "A head is a matter of eyes, nose, mouth, which can be distributed in any way you like." Picasso was quoted in regards to his affection for the designs of these masks.

In 1908, Picasso would prompt the critic Louis Vauxcelles to refer to his work as 'cubic oddities' after seeing his work in an exhibition.  What Picasso (and later Braque) were doing was to study and analyse the subject, breaking them down into simple geometric shapes, which were then fractured and broken up before being pieced together in an abstract form.  This allowed the Cubists to take a structure or subject, and display them from several varying and impossible perspectives.  Between 1908 and 1911, Picasso and Braque would work on what is now considered Proto-Cubism, before the first exhibit of the style now officially named as Cubism was held.

Analytical Cubism

Analytical Cubism is a very technical and complicated approach to a subject.  Braque and Picasso would both study and work with similar subjects, often even sharing them.  Through their experiments with Analytical Cubism, they would paint and sketch still life images, usually involving glass bottles, fruit bowls and musical instruments.  Additionally the female form was also prevalent in their work.  These early works tried to remove certain distractions.  Colours became neutral and lacked saturation.  The forms would be simple and easily obtainable.  The focus was purely on the defragmentation and splintering of the shapes they were studying.

Picasso in particular viewed each segment, each angle and detail to be on a different plane.  A different axis or viewpoint.  What is most peculiar is that these fragmented viewpoints could contain their own mass or shape.  This led to each segmented area having it's own unique shading, texture and lighting.  In addition to this, complicated shapes were often reduced to simpler ones.  This can best be seen in 1910's Girl with a Mandolin, particularly around the face.  The usual curved and detailed face has been reduced to a simple straight line, with interesting lines and subsequent shadow acting to define the jaw and brow.  At this stage in Picasso's studies, the forms of the subjects he was portraying were still clear and apparent in his images.

1911 led to further development of the movement.  Braque produced Nature Morte (The Pedestal table), a still life featuring a vast collection of items sat atop a small table.  Unlike Girl with a Mandolin, the subjects aren't immediately clear in this image.  Rather than focusing on the objects themselves, it seems like the planes from which they are viewed have the most attention.  The details of the subjects are lost and jumbled, and often removed completely. Braque leaves only a few details behind to subtly suggest at the items in his composition.  More string instruments are suggested, as with the long necks and curved heads appearing throughout the image.  Both of these images are oil paintings on canvas.

To try and better understand Analytical Cubism, I tried to recreate some of the techniques and styles used.  The first thing I did was to sketch out some of the shapes and patterns from Picasso's Girl with a Mandolin, as pictured below.

I wanted to try and capture the sharp and jarring shapes and angles of the image.  The version on the left is just a pencil drawing, but I wanted to add more colour to the drawing, to see if I could get it closer to the real version.  I opted to use colour pastel, adding some greys, yellows and browns.  This didn't really work though, as the pencils rubbed with the pastels, instantly darkening the colours.  Although I do think it slightly improved the image, it as not the affect I was intentionally going for.  When drawing this image, I realised how much of the subject Picasso retains.  It's more than the geometric shapes, but also some of the internal details.  For example, some of the curls in her hair.  The features he chooses are seemingly random, though I know he picked them for a reason.  Perhaps he felt they were a striking physical attribute of his subject.

This image is based on Braque's 1910 painting, Pitcher and Violin.  This is a very small segment of the final piece.  I tried to place down some pastel colours on the paper, and then sketched on top of it to try and create a more accurate representation of the colours in the final image.  I noticed something with this piece.  Some of the areas, particularly ones with the most defining features (in this case the Violin neck and head) were devoid of perspective fracturing.  It was as if Braque had intentionally left those areas clear to make the subject clear to the viewer.

This attempt at the Analytical style is my favourite.  Based on Picasso's Violin from 1911, I tried to be a bit more vibrant with my colours, and also used a pen to better define some of the darker, deeper shapes conveyed.  I tried to limit these lines to parts I though best represented (what I assumed) to be the subject matter, the violin.  Overall, I feel the brighter colours and darker features make this one stand out a lot more for me.  I also noticed that some angles or segments transcend the others.  For example, the neck of the violin runs consistently downward, over and under lapping several other segments depicted in the image.

Another image that got my eyes was this painting by French Artist, Albert Gleizes.  This painting, completed in 1911 is a Portrait of Jacques Nayral.  It's grey tones and neutral colours are matching to Analytical Cubism, though the approach is slightly different.  The figure, the main subject, is clearly defined.  What makes this interesting is that Gleizes studies the face, and breaks each component and detail into a geometric shape, resulting in this blocky, 3D style.  

To try and better understand how Gleizes had broken up the face, I attempted to recreate it using a black ink liner.  I tried to section off the parts of the face that had different colours, signalling their tones through crosshatching.  It really helps you understand the contours and shapes of the head and it's features.  That being said, this was not the best representation, and I was not overly happy with now it turned out.  It was a lot tougher than I expected it to be.  I feel Gleizes had a unique way of viewing and understanding his subjects.

Synthetic Cubism

Following Analytical Cubism, Picasso, Braque and fellow Spanish painter and sculptor Juan Gris (1887 - 1927) would alter their approach to the subject.  Where Analytical Cubism would show several angle and views on a singular flat plane, Synthetic Cubism would try to break down the components that combined to create their subject, and display in these fragments.  These experiments would move Cubism from a flat 2D plane to a 3D one, introducing the use of collage and sculpture into the movement.  Form, colour and texture would all be subject to scrutiny, however opposed to the Analytical approach, the Synthetic phase would produce simpler, more vibrant images.

The Synthetic phase of Cubism would run from 1912 until approximately 1914.  The idea was to consider other elements of the subjects composition, most notably texture.  Most of the artworks produced in this part of the movement are collages, or in some way try to emulate the texture and depth of collage.  Above is Picasso's Bottle of Vieux Marc, Glass, Guitar and Newspaper from 1913.  Although it's one of the simpler images produced by Picasso, it's also the clearest and easiest to view, in my opinion.  The image is a still life, featuring several items, including a guitar, all sitting on a table.  Picasso uses over simplified lines and shapes to suggest the forms of the items on the table, whilst using various textures and designs of paper to display depth.

Still Life with Compote and Glass from 1914 is another of Picasso's explorations with collage.  His shapes are more coherent here, simpler and cleaner.  Colour is for the most part flat, with only simple shading to show form.  The painted sections add an extra layer of texture and depth to the image, and attempt to to provide more information about the subject.  This is obviously a much more detailed and intensive image compared to the previous collage, and this one also makes better use of colour.  It's a much more attractive and pleasing image to look at.  

Sunblind, by artist Juan Gris was created in 1914, and shows a desk lamp sitting on a bedside table in front of a blind covered window.  Of all the collage's I've looked at, this one has the clearest form to me, though the shapes are still as simple and geometric as Picasso's imagery.  The way light is portrayed in this image is very interesting, using white paints to show where the light is hitting or reflecting.  The use of blue helps to show the subject through the light, as if the light supersedes the form and shape of the subject.  

The Synthetic Collage was something that I really struggled to grasp.  I understood the shapes and forms used, but the way the images were constructed and the compositions really baffled me.  I didn't understand how the loose, and often disconnected images related to the ideas of Cubism.  I tried to gain a better understanding of these collages by recreating a couple of them.

This was my attempt to recreate Bottle of Vieux Marc, Glass, Guitar and Newspaper by Picasso.  I used random newspaper pages that I found, as well as card and pencil and pen for the shading and line-art.  This was reasonably straight forward to put together, and honestly, I still have a hard time understanding it.  The paper doesn't make me understand the subjects any further, and most of the forms are hard to detect.  The guitar is the only distinguishable subject in this image, in my opinion.

My second collage was a small replica of Gris' Sunblind.  I used brown card a long with various card, newspaper, pens, ink chalk and paint.  The blind's were drawn on rather haphazardly, and I had a hard time placing the chalk to create the correct lighting.  I prefer this one to my Picasso copy, purely because this one feels more like a complicated image.  As mentioned previously, this is one of my favourite Synthetic Collage's, probably due to the lighting and atmosphere of the image.  It has a sort of film noir detective feel about it, being the foggy seeming lighting or the blinds.  The structure of this image makes a lot more sense to me.

Personal Response

Cubism has always been an area where I feel conflicted.  I feel I understand the concept behind it, but a lot of the time I struggle to understand how the artists arrived at their works.  I definitely prefer the Analytical Cubism over the Synthetic Cubism, both because I understand it better, and I find the final images much more appealing and interesting to look at.  This is not usual for me, as I tend to favour the images with the brighter and more vibrant colour palettes, as well as simpler, clearer forms.  Bizarrely, the overly complicated Analytical images I can understand and read better than the structure and composition of the Synthetic Collage's.

I have a great understanding of the fourth dimension and how different planes work, and I can read that in the earlier Cubist works.  I feel some of the theory is lost as it was further developed.  I am surprised in hindsight the direction that cubism took, as I would have expected more time based experiments, and some wider, more adventurous angles and perspectives (all be it executed in a less complex manner).  It's not the conclusion I would have predicted the movement to arrive at.  Despite this though, Cubism is an incredibly interesting and complex movement, and there's a lot to learn and understand about it.  I don't belief my understanding to be perfect, and I know there's more out there to learn.  There always is.  

I can't help but wonder if Cubism, perhaps with another name or movement, was explored in the way I imagined it would.  I find it highly unlikely I'd be the only one to consider playing with time and perspective more.  I believe Cezanne's later work to be closer to what I had anticipated.  I would liked to have seen a more faithful continuation to Cezanne's work, and would loved to have seen his true conclusion.  The idea of these planes taking on small and individual frames almost is something I never expected, yet the style and look is so representative of the movement.  

One thing has not changed throughout my research into Cubism, and that thing is that on a very basic level, I find these images pleasing and interesting to look at.  Regardless of whether or not I fully understood them.  At the time, these images must have seemed so radical and bizarre to look at, but to me they've always inspired a curiosity and wonder.  

Potential Uses

Cubism is a use in and of itself.  It's such a dominant and powerful style that I find it hard to fit it into another use or project without it standing out so much that it would take over the visual aesthetic.  Which I do not belief is a bad thing.  For a particular style to be that powerful by itself is frankly a testament to the sheer power that Cubism holds. 

I feel I would use Cubism again in the sense that I wish to explore several of my own ideas and approaches to the theme and ideology of the movement.  There's so much to Cubism that we didn't see, and I'd love to explore some of those options.  A simple example would be if vibrant colours were injected to Analytical Cubism (though I suppose that would produce results similar to Picasso's Weeping Woman).  I'd love to further explore time and the passage of time within Cubism.

Experimenting with the drawings and geometrical shapes was a great learning experience, and I know I'll definitely take some of these techniques forward with me when I'm sketching.  I tried to create my own portrait in the Analytical style, using pencil and coloured pencils.  The colours were more vibrant than I expected, but overall, I'm quite pleased with it.

It's hard to find a place to squeeze Cubism into.  It feels like such a huge idea that it can't help but be it's own thing.