CUBISM: INITIATORS, CHARACTERISTICS, STAGES, REPRESENTATIVES, WORKS - ART - 2025

The Cubism is an art form that was born in France in 1907. This movement was characterized by the use of new painting techniques showing other views of reality. Likewise, he stood out for the use of geometric figures, such as the circle, the cylinder and the cube. The purpose of this new technique was to change the elements that were used in traditional art.

Cubist painters refused to create works where the figures were completely defined. For this reason, the paintings made by the Cubists - sometimes - are difficult to understand. An example is Pablo Picasso's painting Girl with a Mandolin (1910), which has the structure of a puzzle that has not yet been assembled.

Girl with Mandolin, by Picasso. The painting looks like a puzzle. Via wikimedia commons

The interesting thing about this work is that some parts of the woman's body are in profile, while the others are in front. How to understand it? The idea is to look at each piece separately and then organize them as a whole.

It is claimed that the Cubist movement was based on a mental exercise, since painters did not portray objects as they were or as they were seen, but as they were imagined. Therefore, Cubism was a manifestation that valued the development of modern ideas.

The term cubism was created at the beginning of the 20th century by Louis Vauxcelles to name those paintings that he considered inferior, since he said that the artists who belonged to this movement only drew deformed cubes.

However, this artistic manifestation was essential for the emergence of Futurism, Surrealism and other abstract techniques.

Initiators of Cubism

Cubism was born with the purpose that painters did not imitate nature when creating their works. For this artistic movement to be born, the influence of African sculpture, technological development and scientific thought was important.

For example: thanks to African sculpture, painters realized that the concept of artistic beauty could be modified: works did not have to be perfect to convey a message.

On the other hand, technological development - especially the invention of the photographic camera - made artists understand that the world was changing, as photos were replacing portraits.

Scientific thought - specifically what Albert Einstein exposed - was fundamental for the authors to understand that people perceived colors, movements and shapes in different ways.

Following these aspects, Pablo Picasso and George Braque decided to design some works that will adjust to the new reality.

Pablo Ruiz Picasso (1881-1973)

He is one of the best known painters in the world. He was born in Malaga, a city located in Spain. He moved to Madrid to study at the San Fernando Royal Academy of Fine Arts; but in 1900 he moved to Paris, where he continued his studies.

At first his artistic works were classical, but in 1906 he began to produce his painting The Young Ladies of Avignon, which - according to the critics' opinion - founded Cubism. This painting was exhibited in 1907 and is composed of 5 naked women: 4 are standing and 1 is sitting.

Apparently 3 ladies have disfigured faces; but when they are observed in detail, they are seen to be wearing African masks. This work stands out for being flat at first glance; however, the angular lines give it depth.

The young ladies of Avignon, by Pablo Picasso. Their faces are inspired by African masks. Via wikimedia commons.

Piccaso's cubist works are characterized by having neutral colors, black, gray, white and brown stand out; but he also used dark blue and red.

His purpose was to represent in a different way the beings or elements that he considered had been widely used in traditional art, which is why he focused on painting women and still lifes.

Georges Braque (1882-1963)

This artist was one of the main followers of Pablo Picasso, he even joined him to develop cubist painting. He was born in Le Havre, a town located in France. His artistic life began in his father's workshop, where he related to primary and composite colors. In 1889 he moved to Paris to study at the Humbert Academy and the School of Fine Arts.

Unlike Picasso, Braque's cubist paintings are characterized by being very colorful, as he used yellow, green, and dark red. His objective was to give depth to the works through color, so he contrasted bright tones with neutral ones. His creations are difficult to interpret because the lines are not precise or some are on top of the other.

Observing a painting by Braque is like seeing a school billboard where numerous papers have been placed in no order. For this painter, the important thing was that the viewer organize the cubist works through imagination.

Painting by Georges Braque. Via wikimedia commons.

Throughout his career, he painted withered landscapes, musical instruments, and simple objects such as pipes, glasses, bottles, and fruit bowls. Another fundamental aspect of his paintings was that he included the letters; that is, some of its pieces show a written message.

Characteristics of cubism

They experimented with shapes and objects

Cubists explored open forms, piercing through figures and objects, letting space flow through them, blending the background in the foreground, and displaying objects from various angles.

Some historians have argued that these innovations represent a response to the changing experience of space, movement, and time in the modern world. This first phase of the movement was called Analytical Cubism.

Abandonment of perspective and realism

Artists abandoned perspective, which had been used to represent space since the Renaissance, and also moved away from realistic modeling of figures.

Nature from the imagination

The Cubists sought to paint nature as they imagined it and not as they saw it daily. That is why it is appreciated that each artist portrayed the landscape differently.

However, everyone thought that the world was made up of geometric figures, hence they have used cylinders, cubes, circles and triangles to create their drawings.

Search for multiple points of view

Painters wanted their works to have various points of view. Therefore, it is observed that the characters or objects in some paintings are in different positions.

For example, they could paint a man from behind with his face facing forward, while his mouth and eyes were in profile. To create that effect, they made their paintings as if they were a collage.

Painting by Juan Gris that uses the collage technique. Via wikimedia commons

Content is important

They gave greater importance to the content of the work. In other words, for Cubist artists the important thing was not what they drew, but what the painting conveyed.

Everyday scenes

They did not worry about portraying the subjects that were considered important, such as religious and political, but they focused on painting everyday scenes like a guitar or a vase of flowers. The purpose was for viewers to bond emotionally with the images they saw.

Cubist techniques

Light effect

The Cubists did not bother to use the chiaroscuro technique, which was widely used by Renaissance authors to highlight some element or character in their works. What the Cubist painters did use was the effect of light, which they created when they joined the colors brown and yellow.

Little colorful figurine and background

At first, in cubist paintings the third dimension was eliminated. In other words, the artists did not focus on creating depth, so the paintings used to be of a single plane; In conclusion, only the figure and a not very colorful background were represented.

However, with the passage of time the authors began to use curved lines and compound colors (that is, those that are formed from the primary colors), which gave the paintings a certain thickness.

Stages of cubism

The purpose of Cubism was to break with the artistic works that had been made previously, especially those made by the authors of the neoclassical movement, whose paintings stood out for being a copy of nature and its beauty.

This is how Pablo Picasso, determined not to follow an artistic manifestation that was realistic, not only focused on studying African art and technological advances, but also examined in detail the paintings of the French painter Paul Cézanne, which were characterized by being poorly defined.

Cézanne did not use the third-dimensional technique and the figures that stood out in his works were the spheres. Influenced by these ideas of representation, Picasso developed cubism, which comprised three stages:

Early Cubism (1907-1909)

Many authors say that this primitive period cannot be included within the stages of Cubism, because it was only a moment of experimentation. However, it was during this stage that painters began to define the characteristics that would identify their paintings, among them were the following:

- It was decided to use only black and white colors. If you wanted to use other shades, then grays and browns were valid.

- It was preferable to paint objects and people instead of landscapes.

- It was not necessary for the paintings to have thickness or depth.

Analytical Cubism (1910-1912)

Also called Hermetic Cubism, since it was very difficult to understand the image and the order of the painting.

This stage was important because the artists focused on analyzing the events of daily life to recreate them; that is, they observed a specific scene, imagined it in a fragmented way, and thus painted it.

Therefore, the pictures that were made during Analytical Cubism resemble puzzles. The aspects that stood out throughout this period will be mentioned below:

- The artists did not want their paintings to have a unique meaning.

- The use of curved lines was increasingly common, an element that gave a certain depth to the work.

- The yellow, green and blue tones began to be used to contrast them with the neutral colors.

- Landscapes began to be included in the paintings.

Synthetic Cubism (1913-1914)

This stage was also named reintegration cubism, because the artists already had more thematic freedom when painting. The most important author of this manifestation was George Braque, who invented the collage or patch technique.

In order to add texture to the paintings and increase the value of the decoration, Braque cut out pieces of paper and painted them onto the work. That event caused the cubist portraits to have a greater impact on viewers.

From that moment on, artists not only used oil and acrylic paints to make their paintings, but also used materials such as cloth, sand and glass.

Representatives and their works

Cubism was a manifestation that lasted a few years; However, his influence was fundamental for the birth of new artistic expressions. For this reason, it is claimed that the movement started by Picasso and Braque not only changed the history of art, but also demonstrated that there are different techniques for painting.

But Braque and Picasso were not the only representatives of cubism, Juan Gris and Fernand Léger also highlighted:

- José Victoriano González Pérez (1887-1927)

Better known as Juan Gris, he was a painter born in Madrid. From 1904 to 1906 he studied at the School of Arts and Manufacturing and took courses at José Moreno Carbonero's workshop.

He moved to Paris in 1906, as he was fleeing the military and the Spanish government. In that city he got lodging in the same building where Picasso and Braque lived.

In 1910 he made his first Cubist paintings, which were not well received because they had depth. From 1911 on, his works stood out for being colorful and flat. Thanks to this painter, the caricature effect was included in the paintings, he also made the portraits look wider and longer.

An example is his work Harlequin with guitar (1919), where the elongated figure of a man is seen with his body facing the front, but looking to the left. The painting is made up of rectangles, triangles and some wavy lines that give the sensation of movement: as if the character were playing the musical instrument.

Paints

Juan Gris not only dedicated himself to improving the style of cubist paintings, he also created his own collage technique where he joined newspaper with cardboard. Among his most important paintings are:

- Portrait of Pablo Picasso (1912).

- Violin and chess board (1913).

- Still life with shutter (1914).

- Amadeo Modigliani (1915).

Still Life with Shutter (1914) by Juan Gris. Via wikimedia commons.

- Fernand Léger (1881-1955)

He was born in Argente, a province located in France. In 1900 he moved to Paris where he was an architectural assistant and studied at the Académie Julián. He admired Paul Cézanne and from 1907 he focused on studying his works.

His first cubist pictures were painted in 1908; although it is necessary to mention that his style was not as developed as that of Juan Gris. Even so, he stood out for the way he used the primary colors, which he used to highlight the shadows of the cylindrical figures and give texture to his paintings.

Another important characteristic of Léger's works was that he did not portray people, but rather drew robots and machines that were consuming humanity. This is how it is seen in his painting Nudes in the forest (1909), where a tank filled with metallic objects can be seen; the geometric figures that stand out in the work are the cone and the cylinder.

In this painting there is not even an empty space; it is as if the painter had meant that man was being replaced by technology.

Paints

Fernand Léger's objective was to paint the beginning of a new world, which is why he used bronze and gray tones, as they were the colors of machines. Some of his most important works are:

- The railway crossing (1919).

- Woman with a cat (1921).

- Three women (1921).

- The Mona Lisa with the keys (1930).

Vitral by Fernand Léger currently located at the Central University of Venezuela. Via wikimedia commons.

- Louis Marcoussis (1878-1941)

Ludwik Kazimierz Wladyslaw Markus, who was his real name, was born in Poland, but soon moved to Paris. After studying law, he showed interest in painting by entering the Julian Academy. In 1905 he exhibited for the first time, being the beginning of a quite remarkable career.

He was lucky enough to meet artists like Braque, Degas or Pablo Picasso, which influenced him to experiment with cubism. During this time he presented in various exhibitions still life works, landscapes of the Breton coast or views of Paris.

In addition to cubism, he also developed engraving, illustration or impressionism techniques until his death in 1941.

Paints

- Le bar du port (1913).

- Violin, bouteilles de Marc et cartes (1919).

- Figures on a Beach (1930).

- The Musician (1914).

The musician (1914). Louis Marcoussis / Public domain

- Albert Gleizes (1881-1953)

Parisian by birth, from a young age he was a bohemian boy who preferred to spend his afternoons writing poetry by the cemetery instead of playing or going to school. After a period in the army, he began as a painter's apprentice in his father's workshop, where landscapes were his first works.

Although his initial style was impressionist, when he became acquainted with the artists of the Montparnasse neighborhood, he became interested in Cubism, a movement to which he has been most closely linked during his artistic life.

He joined the Puteaux Group and was always closely linked to other geniuses such as Marcel Duchamp, Jean Metzinger or Jacques Villon.

Paints

- Cubist Landscape (1914).

- Portrait of Jacques Nayral (1911).

- Figure Cubiste (1921).

- Sitting nude (1909).

- Diego Rivera (1886-1957)

Although best known for his murals, this prominent Mexican painter also had a brilliant Cubist period. The reason was that, being settled in Paris in the 1910s, this movement caught him at its strongest.

Although Rivera's cubist works are many, scholars believe that he was not particularly proud of them and tried to keep them secret. Later he continued experimenting with other avant-garde techniques such as post-impressionism.

Paints

- Portrait of Ramón Gómez de la Serna (1915).

- The woman at the well (1913).

- Portrait of Two Women (1914).

- Maternity, Angelina and the child Diego (1916).

References

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