Cubism

3 Pages 815 Words

Picasso and Cubism

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) invented a modern art movement called cubism. Cubism received its name from French art critic Louis Vauxelles after seeing Picasso’s painting Houses on the Hill, at Horta de Ebro. He said the houses had a three-dimensional, cubic quality. Cubism is art created with concepts introduced by Paul Cézanne, similar to tribal art. Cézanne simplified and flattened forms. Before cubism, artists portrayed the world realistically. Picasso said he paints objects as he thinks them, not as he sees them. Cubism was one of the first abstract art movements.
Cubism is broken down into two divisions: analytical and, synthetic. Analytical cubism is the earlier phase of cubism. It is geometric shapes broken into fragments that overlap one another. It sought to break down objects into basic shapes of cubes, spheres, cylinders, and cones. The second phase of cubism is synthetic. Synthetic cubism is paintings created by pasting clippings from newspapers or other materials to the surface of the painting. Synthetic cubism also focuses on the texture of each material added. This technique is also known as collage.
Picasso’s analytical cubism portrayed objects as being flatter and more consistent. Picasso broke objects into geometric shapes and used a wide variety of angles. He felt he should analyze an object, break in down into shapes, flatten the shapes, and change the colors so that the object or human could be seen from as many angles as possible, he used multiple perspectives. For example he might paint a bottle shown in profile while the lid would be shown from the top.
The first cubist paintings stood out because they did not use a consistent light source. Light appears to cast shadows from all different angles which are impossible in actuality. Due to the lack of consistent light the viewer is never sure if the angles are concave or complex. This was a new concept introduce...