Hello viewers, welcome to MOOC’s online
course on ‘Introduction to Modern Western
Art’.
Today in this module we will be looking at
one of the most significant art movements
of early twentieth century called Cubism.
Cubism in many ways is not really a movement,
but it is a kind of earth shaking, you can
say, a discovery of a certain kind of art
language which was going to alter the way
we perceive art, make art, and understand
art once and forever, and like futurism or
fauvism,
cubism also in the beginning at least was
not a very favourable project for many art
critics.
Instead of appreciation, in the beginning
cubism rather received lot of criticisms and
very negative criticisms not withstanding
all these resistances, cubism and the two
most important leaders of the cubist movement
Picasso and Braque went on with their project
and paved the way for an entirely different
kind of aesthetics that was going to rule
the modern art ideas for a long time to come.
Now, the beginning of cubism, well this particular
painting by Pablo Picasso and the title of
the painting in French is Les Demoisells D’avignon,
is supposed to be the first ever cubist painting
painted by anybody.
And these particular paintings introduce a
revolutionary changed in the logic of representation.
If you look at this painting carefully you
will see that the figuration, the method of
representing a figure to begin with defies
all logic of traditional representational
norms.
To use a common plus word this kind of figuration
involves a rampant distortion, but once again
like I mean the way fauvists used colours
the cubists also did not distorts just for
the sake of distortion or the distortion toward
the distortion looks rampant and arbitrary,
it is not arbitrary it was basically in the
process of altering the usual common traditional
representational method.
So, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, they
were the two foremost latest of cubism and
more or less the time frame is from 1907 to
1914, and if we look at any cubist painting,
primarily cubist paintings emphasise flat
two dimensional surface cubist paintings reject
perspective, chiaroscuro and cubist paintings
also reject very easily legible kind of subject
matter.
I mean in many cubist paintings the subject
matter once told is something very easy to
understand, but something extremely difficult
to see.
There are many cubist paintings where the
subject matter despite of a very indicative
title,
Visually, the subject matter is not visible
or very abstract, because the subject matter
or the object in the painting has undergone
severe linguistic operation and experimentations,
and the result is a cubist painting or a cubist
sculpture.
Now as you can see in this painting which
is considered to be the first ever cubist
painting painted by anybody in this case it
is Picasso in 1907, not a single figure conforms
to the normal representational method.
All the figures have very sharp, distorted
features including the two on the right hand
side, whose faces don’t look like faces
they look like mask we will come back to that
later on, but also look at the space around
this figure, not realistic, not representational,
and moreover this space around this figures
is very ambiguous confusing and nonspecific
to say the least.
So, in most of the cubist a painting is a
geometric forms dominating without the realistic
detail.
Cubist paintings refute art as the imitation
of nature it rather follows the certain concept
of representation rather than following or
imitating nature itself.
In cubist paintings, what you see is a conceived
image of an idea or an object rather than
a perceived reality and cubist paintings usually
try to capture the essence of object by showing
it from multiple perspectives or multiple
points of view, simultaneously instead of
going for a single point perspective.
And interestingly most of the cubist paintings
at least in the early phase are monochromatic;
it is only in the later phase of cubism that
you get to see some amount of colours applied
on the painting.
But in the beginning they are monochromatic
in order to foreground and enhance the flat
quality, the cubist forms and facets and also
in order to stop and resist any suggestion
of depth.
Some people think that cubism is a backlash
to the impressionist periods emphasis on light
and colour and thereby tending towards an
optical reality.
After all cubist paintings is spite of some
figurative and objective references in some
of their paintings like this one, cubist paintings
are by and large they are not at all interested
or bothered with optical reality, they are
more interested to deal with the conceptual
reality, a certain way of perceiving things
and looking at things.
Now, though some of the early cubist paintings,
you do find a strong presence of a reference,
even if the reference is not realistic, but
at least, you can make out that this image
refers to the figure of a man or a woman or
a bottle or a guitar, but these references
are going to disappear very soon.
And sooner or later cubist paintings are going
to get very abstract like this one.
Though there is a very clear cut title very
specific title here of this painting, and
as the title goes, this painting is suppose
to be the portrait of Daniel Henry Kahnweiler.
But where is he?
Even if you do find some elements some suggestions
of a face, of a man, it is so removed, so
removed from a representational reality, from
a realistic imaging, that you almost do not
want to claim that you have been able to spot
that man.
But you actually see is a an array of a whole
arrangement of geometric forms, angular shapes
and a mixed all these shapes in forms perhaps
at least in this painting, the image of a
man surfaces, but that to in a very, very
limited extent or for that matter, when Picasso
titles his painting guitar player.
It could be very irritating for a viewer,
to say that this painting has a title called
guitar player, but when you look at the painting
very carefully you can’t see anything, neither
guitar nor player.
So, now this becomes increasingly clear that
in cubist paintings as the movement progresses,
in the cubist paintings or sculptures later
on the subject matter for the artists is only
a pretext, a pretext or an opportunity to
experiment with the language of representation.
An opportunity to go beyond the imitative
or mimetic language and to produce a work
of art which is highly conceptual in nature
and also abstract in terms of it is pictorial
quality.
Here of course, even if we did not have this
very specific title called Girl with a Mandolin,
but the painting still has a better visual
reference to the image of a women who is holding
a mandolin, but what you see here is that
the body of the women as well as the object
called mandolin has been broken in to fragments.
So, fragmentation then appears to be a very
significant, a very important and a useful
tool for the cubist painters and sculptures
in order to create a cubist image.
So, multiple perspectives to show an object
from multiple points of view, and also to
fragment, to create fragments from a single
object, these are some of the significant
and salient features of cubist work.
And the reference to a real human being or
a real object or a real space is only marginal.
This is what we need to take care of.
So, Braque one Braque, who is like Picasso’s
comrade in this cubist movement, even when
he also when he starts his cubist painting
in the beginning he is also having a very
strong reference to a readable, legible image.
But like Picasso in Braque’s paintings also
these references are going to disappear very
soon and what we will be left with is abstract
forms, cubist forms, angular shapes and the
flatness of the surface, lack of any pictorial
depth in the painting like Picasso, Braque
also picks up
ordinary subject matters in fact, very simple
subject matters like a fruit bowl, full of
fruits, or a small little landscape or a man
or a women or a human being or a human figure,
but again for them, it is only a pretext,
an opportunity, a situation to experiment
with their cubist language.
So, cubism as a movement is an idea which
is based heavily on the assumption that in
painting and sculpture we can create an alternative
language.
It is not necessary that a painting or a sculpture
has to be a representation or imitation of
nature, it can create its own language of
representation where the final image may not
look like the original object at all, yet
it is a justified piece of art work.
So, the titles in the cubist paintings of
course, help us to get an entry into the painting,
but in order to enjoy cubist paintings, we
need to forget the title very soon and enjoy
the creative process in which a particular
painting, cubist painting or a cubist sculpture
has been formed.
So, we have seen this painting before, we
are looking at it once again though in this
painting the references are pretty clear than
many other paintings by either Braque or Picasso,
but it would be a good exercise on our part
to try to forget this recognisable elements
and get in to the what we call the abstracts
structure of the painting, where the realistic
references will play a minimum or no role
and what we are suppose to enjoy is it is
abstract construction, and this is what cubist
paintings or sculptures also expect us the
viewers to do.
In fact, which is often said that cubist works
are a challenge to our cognitive order, because
our cognitive order is programmed in a way
which makes it difficult for us, at least
in the beginning to enjoy a cubist painting
or sculpture.
In fact, for Picasso and Braque too, it was
getting slightly difficult, because if it
was getting too abstract even for them after
a few years.
So, after 1912 both Picasso and Braque thought
of bringing in some references, some visible
clues in their paintings.
So, what we see from 1912 is another phase
within cubism.
If the first phase that is from 1907 to 1911
can be called analytic cubism, where the painters
and sculptures were mostly analyzing a form
and breaking down the forms in fragments and
rearranging the forms once again in a different
order, then the second phace can be called
synthetic cubism; when Braque and Picasso
both realised that analytical cubism was becoming
more and more abstract and the visual interaction
with painting was becoming increasingly difficult
for the viewers.
So, they were certainly thinking about the
reception of their art, and both these artists
adopted a new approach now known as synthetic
cubism.
The most important aspect of this development
was introduction of collage, not that collage
was unknown till then, but until Picasso and
Braque use collage in their work, collage
was never considered as a serious medium for
a serious work of art.
So, instead of breaking down their objects
into facets and reconstructing them, they
started with a set of readymade fragments;
wallpapers, fake chair caning, newspapers
with patches of paint which they built up
or synthesized into more concrete images.
So, now we shall look at a few examples from
this second phase of cubism called synthetic
cubism.
The medium of collage certainly allowed a
spatial relationships without resorting to
the use of conventional perspective, the medium
of collage also allowed the artists to use
most non conventional and surprising elements,
visual elements like a piece of news paper
or a magazine cutting or an object pasted
on the canvas.
So, in a sense it changed also the notion
of painting, not only the language of painting,
but also the notion of painting.
Because until then, in a painting, viewers
always expected a painted image, but now viewers
can see that a painting may also have pasted
elements.
So, collage gets elevated, collage assumes
a dignified status in the hands of Picasso
and Braque.
So, the pasted news paper and also the juxtaposition
of a newspaper piece exactly beside something
else with a brown paper and I think this collage
also allowed both this artists to introduce
textual materials as a part of their painting.
This is very interesting because the moment
there is a text because text is something
immediately legible, the viewer gets tempted
to read the text which perhaps allows her
or him to withdraw into the language of the
painting.
So, introduction of textual materials, as
a part of their painting also started from
cubism and later on and particularly in the
contemporary art scenario, we see a lot of
artists across the world are using text and
textual materials as a part of their art work.
The legacy can be traced back to cubism.
Now cubism or cubist approach also allowed
the artists not only Picasso and Braque, but
other artists as well to imagine some cubist
sculptures.
Not only that they imagined only they actually
executed cubist sculptures.
Where once again like paintings and sculptures
would refuse to be recognised immediately
with reference to any one particular object.
But being a three dimensional thing, as you
keep looking at this sculpture and as you
keep moving around the sculpture not only
that you begin to recognise the references
embedded in this sculpture, but also you became
to enjoy the method of construction.
And this is what exactly cubism and many other
art movements in twentieth century tried to
tell us.
That you are looking at a work of art not
simply to recognise or identify the object,
but also and perhaps sometimes only to enjoy
the process of constructing a work of art.
Now with regard to the impact of cubism, many
later art movements like futurism and of cubist
sculptures Picassos own works, Marcel Duchamp
constructivism and many other individual artists
have got highly inspired by the cubist notion
of space, colour, three dimensionality, fragmentation
and the linguistic experimentations.
So, though the movement as a cubism might
have come to an end around 1916 and 17, but
the impact remained and it left cubism left
a very very strong impact on the succeeding
generations of artists and art movements.
Now, let us look at a few key works by Picasso.
Now you look at Picassos sculptures though
Picasso made this sculptures slightly later
after the cubist movement, but the foundation
of this sculptures their look and the appearance
of this sculptures, the construction of this
sculptures are clearly strong kind of reflection
of Picasso’s own cubist leaning or for that
matter look at this sculptures.
It is not only fragmentations; it is also
about rearrangement of the individual forms,
independent forms, parts of a form into something
else.
And it is this rearrangement that later much
later even in 1925 allows Picasso to come
up with this kind of fascinating compositions.
They look absolutely inorder yet there is
a huge amount of rearrangement, in a with
a cubist attitude which something that we
have never seen before.
Now, even when Picasso is approaching a single
form, like you seen this painting called women
with a flower in 1932, vaguely there is a
reference, there is a trace of a figure of
a women or maybe even a flower, but what eventually
appears a stage in the painting is neither
the women nor the flower, but a peculiar arrangement
and a configuration of shapes and colours
and patterns.
So, Picasso goes on extending the idea of
cubism in his own works for a long period
of time till the end of his career.
Like when you look at these kinds of paintings,
though these paintings were never a part of
the main cubist movement, but these paintings
evidently carry a strong impression of cubism.
If you look at the fragments if you look at
the rearrangement of the forms, if you also
look at the element of abstraction in this
paintings, cubism or the idea of cubism is
clearly visible in this paintings.
Picasso’s favourite subjects were musical
instruments, still life objects and his own
friends.
He worked for sometime in a style using flat
colours and simplified forms all this is true,
but he could and in fact, Picasso throughout
his career changed his style again and again.
No one artist has ever changed his styles
as much as Picasso did though out his career.
But despite all these changes, stylistic changed
that Picasso went though in his own work,
the impact and the presence of cubism remained
as a very strong element throughout his life.
To the extent that even when he was making
small little objects or very simple paintings
or reconfiguring a very common object or a
figure like a hen, like a cock, or head of
a women and all that, everywhere you see that
Picasso is very intelligently using if not
cubist language, but the possibilities of
using cubist elements within a work of art.
So, Picasso himself was inspired by the experimental
freedom of cubism, and Picasso went on to
create a magnificent range of art works with
a playfulness and skill never seen before.
In fact, when you look at some of his very
interesting sculptures like this, they are
playful yes true, but at the same time these
sculptures are testimony to his extremely
intelligent way of handling different mediums
and objects.
Otherwise no other artist would have even
imagined to use a toy motor car as the head
and face official pansy or for that matter,
to use a bicycle seat and the handle bar and
reorganised them in a way that they look like
the head of a bull.
Now we think that even this playfulness this
quality of playfulness that is evident in
many of the works including sculptures and
paintings by Picasso is directly or indirectly
a byproduct of cubism.
To the extent that when in 1937 Picasso painted
his famous Guernica as a response to the bombardment
and the very very brutal kind of incident
that happened in Guernica in 1937, there is
a Spanish fascist rulers, they bombarded a
small little place in Guernica.
So, this was Picasso’s response, he reacted
to that brutality and, but the way he expressed
the brutality and anguish and violence in
this painting, he did not follow either any
realistic or representational method.
He rather followed a cubist methodology to
express the violence, the brutality and the
tragedy of the most in human crime meted out
to innocent people by a very powerful fascist
government.
So, cubism did have a long impact not only
on the history of modern art but also on the
individual artists like Picasso himself.
Thank you.
