cubist manifesto

cubism received its name from the harsh critics, when it was published in its first art exhibition in Paris 1910. the originators of cubist art was Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque which was introduced by Guillaume Apollinaire and spokesman of cubist art. they were shortly joined by Juan Gris, jean Metzinger, Fernand Leger, Albert Gleizes and Sonia Dalaunay. in Picasso's terms, cubism was a vague desire on the part of those who participated in it to regain some kind of order. cubists were trying to move in the opposite direction to impressionism. that was the reason for cubists abandoning color, emotion, sensations and everything that had been introduced by impressionists. the very first piece of cubist art to display this was Picasso's Les Demoiselles D'avignon.

Braques first cubist work was influenced by this piece and is named "standing nude"

cubism originally used landscapes. these pieces of art started in 1908 when Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque moved out of Paris to the countryside. cubism was clearly not intended to be abstract art but to be a form of art that's well thought about and no accident, thinking outside the box, giving the viewer how 3D objects look flat as an open plan. cubism was influenced by Cezannes oil painted landscapes e.g la Montagne Sainte Victorie

was also influenced by Gauguin's landscapes such as haymaking

 

African tribe art also influenced the works of cubist art such as the Gabon masks. African sculptures with their bold shapes and lines had a great impact on cubist art. African art exhibitions was common in Paris and European cities in the 1920's. most of the artists i have mentioned in my blog was keen collectors of African Gabon masks. the horrific expressions and simplistic design of the masks inspired Picasso.

 

there are three techniques within cubist art, these is analytical cubism, synthetic cubism and cubist sculpture. each of these styles was used to represent their views on landscapes, still life and portraits.

analytical cubism was expressed using restricted colors and subject matter, making the art work seam shallow. Picasso viewed objects as a number of planes, seeing the object from all viewpoints which in doing so broke down the objects into its basic shapes. both artists together created a new perspective viewpoint.

 

synthetic cubism 1912 onwards experimented with collages, sticking pieces down e.g newspapers and match boxes etc on to canvas and combining them with drawing and paint. this was seen in Picasso's 'still life with chair caning'

 

it also used the technique invented by Georges Braque named Papier Colle which involved sticking down plain or patterned paper onto the painting to be painted as if they wasn't there. synthetic cubism developed  the new unexpected ideas through the media of collage and Papier Colle. they were able to express there  constructive elements through getting control of colors and texture, reducing real objects to lines and planes.

cubist sculpture bought the simplified shapes from cubist paintings together with the three dimensional modeling sculpture. the first cubist sculpture was designed by Picasso in 1909 'head of a woman'

as i mentioned previously in the blog, Picasso was influenced by African masks. cubist sculptures was recognized as analytical cubism in its stripping away of the illusionist detail revealing its sophisticated form contained in each individual object, it been human or still life. Picasso also used synthetic cubism in hes sculptures e.g the art style 'found objects'