Cubism Cubed
An Art History Project in the Making
Living Room with Cubist Decor
The couch is a modern style which has come to be viewed as cubist, although it is probably more correct to say it is composed of cubes
The coffee table is composed of four rectangular planes.
A modern planar cubist sculptural piece stands on the floor beside the couch.
A heavy brass chandelier in a modern cubist style hangs above the seating area
On the other side of the room stands a Czech Cubist bookcase
with an original Cubist Arm chair beside it.
Two paintings by Lyonel Feininger
1. Clouds Above The Sea IV 1942 Oil on Canvas by Lyonel Feininger (New York 1871-1956) 2. Edge of the Woods 1928 Oil on Canvas by Lyonel Feininger (NY 1871-1956) Lyonel Feininger (1871 - 1956) was a German-American painter and caricaturist. He grew up in New York, but moved to Berlin because his parents wanted him to study music (violin and composition) in 1887 when he was 16 years old. He decides to study drawing instead. He began his artistic endeavors as a cartoonist, and caricature artist and worked doing this for about 20 years. He began to produce paintings in 1907. Those that he painted between 1907-1910 were based on his early cartoons and caricatures. Then he visited Paris a couple of times (1906-7 and 1911) and met Robert Delaunay, and encountered Cubism. His later work shows a strong use of prismatic style, and planes of colour emphasized by intersecting light rays. Many concentrate on an architectural feature as well. In 1937 some of his work was included in the 'degenerate art' showing that the Nazis displayed to criticize artists who were working in the modern styles. His wife was of Jewish descent and they fled to America in 1937. He left a large amount of his work hidden in the country with a friend . He continued to develop his cubist style in America.
Embrace
1971 Oil on Canvas
by Pablo Picasso
(Malaga 1881 - Mougins 1973)
I chose this painting because it shows the obvious passion of two lovers, and since I was doing the bedroom, it seemed to fit. The Colors are very Calming.
Nude Woman Leaning On A Table
1917 Oil on Canvas
by Jean Metzinger
(Nantes 1883-Paris 1956)
This image is extremely seductive. Because our client lives alone, I decided to put it in the bedroom above the desk. The bedroom is where I decided to put the nude paintings, because of the seductivity of them.
8.47 or Flowered Quivers 1947 Oil on Canvas by Paul-Emile Borduas (St Hilaire 1905 - Paris 1960)
This painting adds a very sophisticated feel to the room. Because you have to know what it is before you see the painting, it gives the viewer the chance to interpret the painting in their own way.
This will be the bed going in my room. It is so planar and just feels right!
These will be my sidetables, because they are so square, with no curved edges, it feels very chunky and cubist.
This armoir is amazing! The overlapping of the cubes is so perfect! This feels very cubist to me.
This desk is mounted between the two walls shown on the plan, the overlapping rectangles from the armoir is repeated in this unit.
This Awesome armchair works with cubism because of the obvious use of straight edged shapes. This will go by the armoir.
Cubism in Architecture
There was a group of four men whose work was very impressive., Paval Janak, Josef Gocar, Josef Cholcol and Vlastislav Hofman, were designers who trained with Otto Wagner(architect/designer) and Jan Kotera (his student)in the ateliers of the Vienna Secessionists. These men worked to incorporate angled planes into architecture and everyday objects. They felt that these angled planes were much more dynamic than horizontal and vertical planes and expressed the internal energy of the object or building. Prague's wealthy society were very open to avant garde trends and ideas and financed these young men's Cubist development. They created everything from cups and sauceers, furniture to apartment complexes built according to the theoretical framework of Cubism.
Some of these buildings and articles survive to the present day.
Examples : Karovic Villa designed by architect Josef Cholcol
Some architectural details - notice the planes and angles on the sides of the building and fronts of balconies and rooftops
This is the staircase in The House of the Black Madonna in Prague. The Czech Cubist |Museum is in this building.
A Cabinet by Josef Gocar
A Chandelier by Josef Gocar
A chair by Vlastislav Hoffman
A chair by Paval Janak
The Dining Room
This is the dining chair I chose which is in keeping with the Cubist lines but has a padding on the seat and lower back for comfort.
Above is the chandelier for over the dining table and the matching wall sconces that will flank the painting on the far wall.
Cubism in Sculpture
Jacques Lipchitz (1891 - 1973) a Jewish Lithuanian engineer who moved to Paris to study art in 1909, is considered to be the first cubist sculptor because he adopted its principles and began to work with them. Even though he produced more traditional pieces, he enthusiastically tried to incorporate the new way of looking at things that Picasso and Braque were developing into his work. In applying these principles to sculpture, the artist must work at dissecting a figure into geometric shapes and reorganizing the parts by counterbalancing the opposing planes and shapes. He created a piece called Sailor and Guitar in 1914 which clearly demonstrates this application of the principles of cubism to sculpture
In 1916 the 1st exhibition of sculpture where "cubist sculpture" was emphasized, was organized by Raymond Duchamp Villon at Galerie de l'Art Ancien et Contemporain. Many sculptors who attended from other parts of Europe were greatly influenced by this exhibition. Sculpture began move from being representational to using the medium to evoke emotions.
Lipchitz became friends with Le Corbusier, and in his later works you can see a strong architectural aspect developing.
This is the sculpture by Jacques Lipchitz that we found in our Museum trip
It is entitled Man with Guitar and was done in 1920. It is a bronze edition of 7 made at that time.
Definitions to hold onto;
Cubism: Is a style of painting that developed primarily through the art of Picasso and Braque during the period of 1907 - 1913 and evolved into multimedia (or collage) pieces during 1910-1928. Many others have followed these new principles and the style has influenced modern art since that time.
The style is characterized by:
- Use Geometric shapes and forms.
- Fragmentation and layering of the subject
- Restricted use of colour; many are very monotone.
- Lack of perspective . They do not have a foreground and a background .Rather than looking into the picture, the subject seems to spill out of the frame.
Two Main Styles and Three Periods of Cubism
Synthetic Cubism
There were three stages of Cubism
Early - 1906 - 1908
High - 1909 - 1914
Late - 1914 - 1921
*Surrealism took over in popularity around 1919.
Cubism had a Wide Impact
- Dada
- DeStijl
- Synchronism (1912 - United States)
- Vorticism (1913 - 1915 - United Kingdom)
- Cubo-Futurism (Russia)
- Purism
- Orphism
- Tubism Futurism (1909 - Italy)
- Constructivism (1919 - Russia)