Cubism art was the beginning of modern abstract art which influenced todays’ artists and is still carried on in current graphic art trends.
This art style emerged in the beginning of the 20th century where artists wanted to show the world another style of drawings. The major artists throughout this cubism period, were Pablo Picasso, the Spanish artist, and George Braque the French painter. Cubism art challenged the traditional perspective of art, and while conforming to the current changes in technology progress (photography cinematography, sound recording) turned to modern abstract art. This modern art displayed its styles in reducing images and portraying them in geometrical shapes, such as cylinders, spheres and cones. This was considered as extreme abstract. The subject of the painting was broken down into fragments, reassembled into abstract painting, and presented from other perceptions. The idea was to present their painting with ‘a new approach of seeing’ things.
Cubism is famous for its way of representing its art style with exaggerated figures larger than life viewpoints, while combining the subject with basic geometric shapes and overlapping planes. The colours predominant in cubism were mostly grey, blue and ochre, while light, space and atmosphere were almost non-existent.
There are two types of cubism –Analytic and Synthetic. The former style gave its priority to geometrical shapes to represent its abstract art. On the other hand Synthetic cubism was recognised and seen as a collage of fine art work. Different tools were combined and fused in this type of art. Collages made from magazine clips and newspapers, were the new tools to convey this art. It also included life objects into paintings. Different materials and mediums rather than just canvas were used and this style of art was referred to as’ blunt and easy to read’
Another phase of cubism worth mentioning is facet cubism, where different patterns lights and textures dominated the facet cubism.
Last but not least one must talk about the famous paintings of Picasso, which are still the emblem of cubism , ‘Des Demoiselles d’ Avignon (1907), The Guitar Player (1910), Ma Jolie (1911) Girl with Mandolin (1910)’s and Woman in an arm chair, (1913).
After doing this research I must admit today’s art is highly influenced by the art styles of these pioneers. From architecture in geometrical abstract shapes (such as the new parliament in Malta, Guggenheim in Santander), to magazines, artists are still using abstract style of this modern art to appear modern and attract the public’s attention, sometimes by being controversial. Art moves in cycles of acceptance and revolution.
References:
Cubism. 2016. Cubism. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.slideshare.net/jcrowder/cubism. [Accessed 10 January 2016].