Georgia Taylor
Discuss the Social, Political and Cultural factors, which influenced Cubism, Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art, analysing key art works to support your argument.
In my essay I will be analysing the social, political and cultural factors that influenced Cubism, Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. I will do this by discussing Key factors including art works and quotes to support my argument.
Cubism is one of the most influential art movements of the 20th century, invented by Pablo Picasso and George Braque. Picasso produced the first Cubist painting ‘Les Demoiselles D’Avignor’ in 1907; the inspiration for this was taken from Paul Cezanne who Picasso described as “My one and only master… Cezanne was like the father of us all” (Collings, 1999) further inspiration was taken from primitive and African art.
Cubist artists worked by deconstructing objects and figures. They focused on trying to show different viewpoints in their work, as well as trying to convey a sense of three dimensional forms. They also highlighted the two-dimensional flatness of the canvas, instead of producing an illusion of depth. Cubism is often split into two types, the early phase Analytic Cubism based on painting and characterized by a pronounced used of geometric shapes and a tendency towards monochromatic use of colour. The later phase Synthetic Cubism focused on the increase of colour and the imitation of a wide range of textures and materials into the painting using collage.
Cubist painters refused to accept the idea that art should copy nature; they wanted to emphasize the two dimensionality of the canvas, so they began to break fractured objects down into geometric forms. When Cubism was first exhibited to the public it was perceived as being ugly, and disliked because it didn’t conform to their idea of what art should be at the time. One of the most important factors of Cubism was its newness and how it disregarded the rules of representation. Shortly after Cubism...