Cubism

Cubism flourished in Paris between 1907 and 1914, by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque which were highly influenced from Paul Cezanne’s work. Cubism was a revolution in the visual arts, the Cubist’s wanted break the perspective of the paintings and emphasize mostly on the two dimensionality of the canvas so they started to fracture the objects into geometric forms.

Cezanne flattened the space in his paintings to place emphasis in their flat surface. He did this to stress the difference between paintings and reality.  It was this flat abstract approach that appealed to the cubists.

The Cubists works were mostly still lifes with musical instruments, newspapers, bottles, glasses or human figures.

Three Musicians - Pablo Picasso, 1921

A two-dimensional painting, the objects are all fragmented in a way that the objects and drawn from multiple angles at the same time they are all messed together to create a good composition. It’s made of repetitive, sharp edged solid block forms. Picasso used monochromatic colours lots of greys, blacks, blues and ochre.

Jean Metzinger, Fernand Léger, Robert Delaunay, Albert Gleizes, Henri le Fauconnier, Marcel Duchamp and Juan Gris adopted the style and joined the Cubists.

Juan Gris

Referred to as the third cubist, although not as famous as Picasso or Braque his work is important when considering the Cubist movement. Gris transformed Picasso and Braques Cubism and making his style became increasingly free and lyrical.

Still Life with Open Window, Rue Ravignan – Juan Gris, 1915

A Cubist still life where Gris used several traditional objects, such as; bowl of fruit, newspapers, books, bottles and balcony window. Gris flattened the composition, and used several geometrical shapes overlapping one another.

The shapes are very balanced with light and dark, positive and negative spaces, one could definitely see the transparency/ opacity there is which creates a certain feel of layers usage.

References:

• Artyfactory.com. 2013. Juan Gris - The Third Cubist. [online] Available at: http://www.artyfactory.com/art_appreciation/still_life/juan_gris.htm [Accessed November 2013].
• David Britt, 2010. Modern Art: Impressionism to Post-Modernism. London. Thames & Hudson.
• Gersh-Nesic, B. 2013. Cubism - Art History Basics on Cubism - 1907 - Present. [online] Available at: http://arthistory.about.com/od/modernarthistory/a/cubism_10one.htm [Accessed November 2013].