Cubism In 20th Century
Cubism was one of the strongest art
movements in the 20th century that gave
birth to many other movements such as
futurism and suprematism. The Forefathers
of this revolutionary way of
painting were Pablo Picasso and George Braque.
Although it may have
seemed to be abstract and geometrical to an untrained eye,
cubist art do
depict real objects. The shapes are flattened onto canvas so that
different
sides of each shape can be shown simultaneously from many angles. This
new
style gave a 3 dimensional look on the canvas. The cubist movement gave
rise
to an extraordinary reassessment of the interaction between form and
space
changing the course of western art forever. The groundbreaking
Demoiselles
d’Avignon was controversial not only for the way the women looked
but also for
the positions of the women. Although Picasso did not emphasize
on detail, he"saw that the rational, often geometric breakdown if the human head
and body
employed by so many African artists could provide him with the
starting point
for his own re-appraisal of his subjects"(Cubism 53). "The
naked women
become inextricably bound up in a flux of shapes or planes which
tip backwards
and forwards from the two-dimensional surface to produce much
the same sensation
as an elaborate sculpture..."(Cubism 54). Futurism was an
art movement, which
was influenced by cubist art. Cubism showed no motion it
was futurism that was
fascinated with machinery, transport and
communications. In paintings and
sculpture, angular forms and powerful lines
were used to convey a sense of
activity, this was a Futurist’s way of showing
motion and speed. One of it’s
innovator’s was Umberto Boccioni who said "We
want represent not the optical
or analytical impression but the physical and
total experience" (Futurism
101). "They now pinned less faith on the
power of new subject matter and
strove to complement their colour divisionism
with fragmentation of the cubist
sort" (Futurism 101). Suprematism was
influenced by cubism because of it
geometric shapes but "suprematism was not
so much a movement in art as it is
an attitude..." (Suprematism 138). This
non-movement was created by Kasmir
Malevich’s , "His elemental forms were
designed both to break the artist’s
conditioned responses to his environment
and create new realities ‘no less
significant then the realities of nature
herself’" (Suprematism 138). A
suprematist work, banishes every trace of
subject, it used color and form and
there interaction to form a subject.
While cubism had definite subject it was
also the interaction of color and
shape that made the subject. Constructivism
was influenced by suprematism,
this movement swept away traditional notions
about art, believing that it
should imitate the forms and processes of modern
technology. "Often
constructivism was overtly propagandist in nature:
sometimes by the placement
of simple geometric forms in the kind of literary
context which turns such
forms into representations..." (Constructivism 161).
De Stijl was mostly
influenced by painters Piet Mondrian, Theo Van Doesburg and
architect Gerrit
Rietveld. These men believed that art should strive towards
complete harmony,
order clarity in a constant process of refinement. The works
in this movement
were of course geometrical, using mainly square forms. The
movement’s forms
were deeply philosophical and were rooted in the idea that
art should in some
way reflect order. All of these movements progressed from
cubism (hence my
title); they developed from shapes into other worldly meanings.
They all
branched out to their own ways and fell to their feelings and
desirers.
All of these movements developed from geometrical objects to
seem as a true form
such as a body or face then turn into a geometrical form.
All of these
innovators thought differently, they wanted to change everyone
else’s state of
mind and with their unlikely way of thinking they have. But
we have become so
accustomed to it that we do not recognize it and take these
powerful shapes and
colors for
granted.