As I've done some looking into Cubism last year, I've decided to give a different look at influences that Cubism changed and how it brought a new way of viewing not only art but the work around us.
Paul Cezanne Father of Cubism
Here is Cezanne's watercolour painting Montagne Sainte Victoire 1905-6....In this painting he had wanted to create a solid look. While having the correct persective but from different viewpoints. On this picture its said that you can see it seems to be painted from different viewpoints so you can see, for example, two different views of a rock or a tree at once.
So Braque and Picasso I believe had seen Cezanne's work and had themselves be inspired by it. That along with changing technology, photography, impressionism, social changes, urban growth and of course the industial revolution.
Cezanne's work |
braque's work |
While George Braques work is more geometric you can see similarly between the two paintings. Shifting viewpoints, brushwork, tonal value. light etc..
Picasso who took a different approach but with similar outcome was also heading and beginning to thinking about different perspectives and the psyche of the mind. After a visit to a museum in 1907, he was have said he particularly liked the sculptures from Africa and from French Polynesia describing them as ‘the most powerful and most beautiful things the human imagination has ever produced’. His work with the African Masks is a good example
picasso's work |
Pictorial space and perspective started to play in the thinking and make-up behind artwork. The real world then started to appear in the style of synthetic cubism.
Juan Gris | The Sunblind 1914 |
Colour and tone led to the collage....
Pablo Picasso | Bottle of Vieux Marc, Glass, Guitar and Newspaper 1913 |
The Bottle of Banyuls - Juan Gri |
Making things flat look 3 dimensional. Using mediums or items like frottage, newspaper, cain and wicker.
Juan Gris - known as the third cubist. Gris is said to have idolized Picasso. Below is a portrait of Picasso in the cubist style by Gris.
Portrait of Picasso (1912) |
I do like the college/synthetic works of Gris because I like the way he depicts out the patterns of the wood or marble (for instance). I have myself an interest in making representational work of an original object or item.
After the flat collage came sculpture based collage....aka the 2d surface of a painter is extended to college + 3d form of sculpture extended = an environment!
Kurt Schwitters - was a German artist who was born in Hanover, Germany. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including Dadaism, Constructivism, Surrealism, poetry, sound, painting, sculpture, graphic design, typography, and what came to be known as installation art.
Merzbau is a vast architectural/sculptural project of the poet and visual artist Kurt Schwitters (1887 - 1948). Schwitters himself has described it as his life's work. The construction was first begun in Hannover, Germany (sometime between 1919 - 1923). Because of war he fled to Norway and here began a second Merzbau. When the Nazi's invaded Norway in 1940, he was forced once more to flee.
London then Ambleside in the Lake District.
Schwitters' built his constructions into his residences incorporating rooms he lived in into the structure. The ceilings and walls were covered with three dimensional shapes and countless nooks and grottos were filed with a variety of objects -- "spoils and relics" (personal items Schwitters stole from friends and acquaintances). These nooks and grottos were sometimes obliterated by future additions, leaving them existing only in the memories of the earlier versions of the work. Schwitters considered the Merzbau on principle, an uncompleted work that by it's very nature, continued to grow and change constantly.
Merzbau is a vast architectural/sculptural project of the poet and visual artist Kurt Schwitters (1887 - 1948). Schwitters himself has described it as his life's work. The construction was first begun in Hannover, Germany (sometime between 1919 - 1923). Because of war he fled to Norway and here began a second Merzbau. When the Nazi's invaded Norway in 1940, he was forced once more to flee.
Schwitters' built his constructions into his residences incorporating rooms he lived in into the structure. The ceilings and walls were covered with three dimensional shapes and countless nooks and grottos were filed with a variety of objects -- "spoils and relics" (personal items Schwitters stole from friends and acquaintances). These nooks and grottos were sometimes obliterated by future additions, leaving them existing only in the memories of the earlier versions of the work. Schwitters considered the Merzbau on principle, an uncompleted work that by it's very nature, continued to grow and change constantly.
merz barn |
Reconstruction of inside of barn |
Herni Matisse
Although Matisse rejected Cubism, he certainly felt challenged by it, and this picture - along with many he painted from 1913 to 1917 - seems to be influenced by the style cubism, since it is very unlike his previous, more decorative work.
With all these changes in art and the theory behind what was considered art could only led the way for more mixed media works and the environmentalist artist...........
HAVE YOU NOTICED HOW JUST RESEARCHING IS LEADING ME OFF ONTO OTHER MOVEMENTS? THIS IS HOW CLOSELY CONNECTED THEY CAN BE AT TIMES!
Dadaist and Surrealist promoted the fact that any object could be art in it own right!
I would have and did turn my nose up at the story of Marcel Duchamp Fountain...The same way I had when viewing Braque's cubism images! Or the weird world of surrealism....xpressionism now I did like that because it was colourful, pretty and most of the time made sense when viewing.
fountain |
also known as readymades |
Is a work of art merely a work of art by exhibiting it?
This is a theory that I myself tested out at our college exhibition for the show creative coat hanger....
WHY?
Firstly I have noticed just how much I like things to be nice, neat and controlled.......My childrens artwork when growing up, well I controlled it....if it didn't look right or if they had something the wrong way up or that I thought looked better differently I would change it....... controlling everything!
Criticism or reaction..... Who cares what people think ? RIGHT wrong!
So here I was after watching a documentary about bob (cant mind his last name)
Cleaning the dirty windows of the exhibition planing on keeping the dirty water, bucket, tissues and cloth as a display/enviromental item! I also left one window dirty in its current state! ? Why ?? I dont really know it just felt like I wanted to push my own personal boundaries......(that I set up many years ago without knowing) I had no reasoning behind it other than letting go and opening myself up for argument or debate... I felt my work wasnt good enough maybe? disconnectioned?
I remember when watching bob lose himself in song or whatever, I remember wishing I could to just let go of caring and be as free as him......to actually shout or dance or do just whatever came out of me at that moment in time....to express me.......
If I had sculptured a bucket and had made my own paper to look like the cleaning kitchen roll I'd used! Would my display be accepted and considered art? (probably) but I still had an active roll in producing the final outcome.....I choose how my tissues sat next to one another.....The dirt and dust around it.....The dirty water with the sediment settled on the bottom of the bucket....settled because I let it and I helped bring it together....Like an artist mixes pigment......Well kind of haha but you get the just!
I put A SIGN next to it asking is it art....... Somebody wrote NO ITS A MESS
Now once over I would of agreed and may of even been upset by the comment. Taking it as a personal attack....But it was my intention to get a reaction and I did......But the winner here is the fact that 1....I got that person to think....or not but to engage atleast........
2....I found a few ways of looking at the reasoning behind artwork or displays
3....I opened myself to criticism
4.....I felt a connection to other artists as an artist's way of doing
WHO CARES IF IT WAS A PILE OF SHITE....for me it marked a viewpoint of a different way of thinking or seeing. Just like cubism had inspired many others and led onto other movements like futurism, dada, surrealism etc
Wether you like cubism or you dont it has influenced many people, movements and styles...
Enjoyed reading this and seeing a shift in your thinking!
ReplyDeleteAlso, particularly liked the mention of the Merzbau - potential for a Merzbau in the Borders?
ReplyDeleteI think there is potential for that and more... Many of the ism's could be highlighted and incorporate into learning, fun and group activities.. My favour idea so far is dada does Christmas... Performance art and show maybe. Not sure....workshops and talks... I think the Borders wants feeding so to speak. The weekend of the coat hanger highlighted that.. People are happy to travel and interact as well as appreciate it..
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