Cubism & Futurism

Cubism & Futurism

  • Submitted By: dahlia1996
  • Date Submitted: 12/10/2013 11:38 AM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 1107
  • Page: 5
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Cubism and Futurism

Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, led by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. It is said to have revolutionized European painting and sculpture as well as influenced similar movements in music and literature. Cubists represented all the surfaces of depicted objects on a single plane, as if the objects had all their faces visible at the same time. This new style changed the way objects could be visualized in painting and art. The first branch of cubism, known as Analytic Cubism, was both radical and influential as a short but highly significant art movement between 1907 and 1911 in France. Cubism’s second phase was Synthetic Cubism, which remained influential until around 1919. This paper will analyse and discuss two art movements that both appeared in the period of the 20th century. These two movements are Cubism and Futurism.
Analytic Cubism was based on reducing natural forms to their basic geometrical parts. Essentially, objects were deconstructed into their components. In some cases, this was means of depicting several different viewpoints simultaneously. Contrarily, in other works, this technique was used more so as a method of visually laying out the facts of the object, rather than providing a limited simulated representation. The aim of Analytical Cubism was to produce a conceptual image of an object, as opposed to a perceptual one. Le Guitariste by Picasso, painted in 1910, is an early example of Analytical Cubism. In this painting, the lines that articulate the canvas transform it into an artwork that moves away from figuration to become an almost abstract image. The guitarists head rested on the cylinder, his shoulders, his arms, right down to the neck of the guitar at the center, are all clues that demonstrate that Picasso tried to create an abstract image that still had a connection to reality. In all of his later works, Picasso continued to use this technique, making some sort of reference to reality in all...

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