Monday, September 1, 2008

Cubism

In the early 1900s, some artists became interested in African and Native American art. The styles of those cultures inspired cubism.

Cubism began in France in 1907. Pablo Picasso and George Braque began painting figures that were made up of cubes, spheres, cylinders, cones, and other geometric shapes. The paintings looked like someone had cut them up and glued them back together.
And that’s exactly what the cubists had in mind. Just like the ancient Egyptians, cubists wanted to show the most important parts of the things they painted. Look at the face in Juan Gris' Portrait of Picasso (above). Gris shows you every detail of Picasso's face even though you would never be able to see all sides of his face at the same time. The cubists took this idea much further than the ancient Egyptians, of course. Cubists wanted to show all the sides of an object in the same picture.
Some cubist paintings were extremely abstract. In Picasso’s The Guitar Player (above), it is difficult to see the person in the painting.

At first, cubists used very little color in their paintings. They used mostly browns, greys, and blues. In 1912, color re-entered the picture and some artists, like Picasso, began using more then just paint and canvas in their art. You may remember reading about Picasso’s musical collages in which he used paper and cloth in his paintings.

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62 comments:

PeterParis said...

A simple, but perfect, description of cubism! Bravo!

Jessica said...

Thanks, Peter! I'm glad you're back from your trip. I'm already enjoying your lovely photos!

Anonymous said...

mmm cubism

Anonymous said...

oooohhhhhhhh cubism

Anonymous said...

thx 4 helping me with my hw i justcopied and pasted LOL

Anonymous said...

It is a wonder description, but what about if we need to teach younger kids? what could we do for that?

WHAT CAN WE TEACH YOUNGER KIDS ABOUT CUBISM?

Anonymous said...

Good information!

Anonymous said...

This is a very helful bit of info thank you who ever wrote this it has been a great help!!! :D

Anonymous said...

usefull info about cubism, helped me with my art homework alot,,
dont see y there is a huge convo at the bottom :S I miss henry tooo so much, it hurts me

Anonymous said...

im doing this for a art homewok thingy and this was the first website. i think its not got a lot of information. i know its for kids and everything but its more year 5-6 than high school years and that is what im doing it for.

by finchy age 13 yr 8

Anonymous said...

It's absolutely perfect for my art homework. We are doing cubism (obviously!) at the moment and this website gave me a perfect description, so I could interprate it in my own way.
THANK YOU!! xx

Anonymous said...

Grrrrr...
Art is soooo boring

Anonymous said...

This site on cubism is brilliant for my homework. A great description!

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

this is a great help, thanks alot xx

Anonymous said...

What art elements did the Cubist artists use in their art. was is LIn, Tone, Shape, Pattern, Mark making, texture or colour (it can be more than one) please anyone reply asap, thanks

Anonymous said...

i am using this fro a cubsim report and i really like this page!!!!
thanks will put u in the bibliography!!!!!

Anonymous said...

this is really good for my homework for art! thankyou soo much! xx

Anonymous said...

good info on cubism.
a simple piece of info but a good description

Anonymous said...

great description of cubism

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Anonymous said...

I ALSO THINK THEY ARE NICE

Anonymous said...

Thanks this helped with my homework

Aspasia, a greek art teacher said...

African art was an ispiration and something like "fashion" then, as the impressionist used the japanese prints, BUT nobody mentioned Paul Cezanne that HE IS the father of Cubism. He was the first that talked about how to see the nature, like cube,cylinder and sphere.Picasso admired very much Cezanne and he owned a painting of him in his studio these days.
That period in the cafes' of Paris even the artists as poets, writers and scientists were discussing a lot about arts, literature, new scientific theories ecc. The Principle of relativity of the famous french mathematician Poincaré (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Poincar%C3%A9)was one of their discussions. Picasso was intrested a lot in that theory,about the 4th dimansion, while he was painitg the Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907)
Study and read more people.

Aspasia, a greek art teacher said...

PS.

for the students....
Don't "copy-paste" everything u read in the internet.
Go to a LIBRARY.

Jessica said...

Aspasia,
Thank you for your thoughtful comment. You're right that there is a lot more to learn about cubism. I encourage readers to continue reading and continue researching. This blog is meant only as a starting point for kids who are interested in learning more about art and for parents and teachers who do not have backgrounds in art but want to impart some art knowledge to their kids. You sound like you have a lot to add to the discussion about cubism and I encourage you to do so!

Anonymous said...

:D Hi Joyus!

Anonymous said...

:P Hey Aneka! LOL

Anonymous said...

I SEE YOU!!!!!O.O

Anonymous said...

Dhahaha! So do I.. LMAO stop playn' around b4 you get SNAPPED lol! :}

Anonymous said...

=D->-<

Anonymous said...

what were the names of the paintings as well as the dates and painter

2Awesome4U said...

Nice Work on the page Jessica. It is really good.

Anonymous said...

cubism gives meaning of art. it made understand; OB at LUCT

Anonymous said...

Really helped me with my homework Thnx

Anonymous said...

thanks for the hwork info!

Anonymous said...

thanks!!! this info is way more helpfull than wikipedia (it has to much words)

Anonymous said...

Needs to be better for kids

Anonymous said...

This was really helpful, thank you.

Anonymous said...

thanks! this was great for my homework!

Anonymous said...

Thanks great infomation for my homework
Well Done

Anonymous said...

this is a great website with not too many words!

Ella xx said...

Thank you very much this helped me alot with my homework on cubism x Well done thank you xx

Ella xx said...

Thank you very much this help me alot with my art homework in Cubism, i now understand! Thank you xx

Anonymous said...

African art was an ispiration and something like "fashion" then, as the impressionist used the japanese prints, BUT nobody mentioned Paul Cezanne that HE IS the father of Cubism. He was the first that talked about how to see the nature, like cube,cylinder and sphere.Picasso admired very much Cezanne and he owned a painting of him in his studio these days.
That period in the cafes' of Paris even the artists as poets, writers and scientists were discussing a lot about arts, literature, new scientific theories ecc. The Principle of relativity of the famous french mathematician Poincaré haha i copyed the art teachers stuff

BIC BOI said...

I JUST LOVE CUBISM

Mr.Know-It-All said...

Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In cubist artworks, objects are broken up, analyzed, and re-assembled in an abstracted form—instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context. Often the surfaces intersect at seemingly random angles, removing a coherent sense of depth. The background and object planes interpenetrate one another to create the shallow ambiguous space, one of cubism's distinct characteristics.
Historians have sought to analyze the history of cubism in terms of phases. In one scheme, a 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. In a second phase, Synthetic Cubism, the movement spread and remained vital until around 1919, when the Surrealist movement gained popularity. English art historian Douglas Cooper proposed another scheme, describing three phases of Cubism in his seminal book, The Cubist Epoch. According to Cooper there was "Early Cubism", (from 1906 to 1908) when the movement was initially developed in the studios of Picasso and Braque; the second phase being called "High Cubism", (from 1909 to 1914) during which time Juan Gris emerged as an important exponent; and finally Cooper referred to "Late Cubism" (from 1914 to 1921) as the last phase of Cubism as a radical avant-garde movement.

Anonymous said...

this is great for my hwk ta!

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much for a simple and effective description of Cubism. This is just the sort of clear information that my son (year 8) needs for his art homework. Once the fundamentals are understood he can go on to more detailed sites if he wants to.

Anonymous said...

This Helped me so much for my Art Homework!

Anonymous said...

Thanks. That was easy. I'VE FINISHED MY HOMEWORK!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Wow this is a great description of cubism.

Anonymous said...

LOL thanks for doing my coursework!

Anonymous said...

I am a student in year 7 and I needed some info on Cubism for an art project and I used this website for my main info and I did really well, so I just wanted to say Thank You sooooooooooooooooo much!! xoxoxo

Anonymous said...

Really Good Explanation, Very Helpful! Thankyou!!! (I used this for my homework!)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for this, it has been very helpful. Much better to understand than Wikipedia!

Anonymous said...

Thanks very much, this has been very helpful. Much better to understand than Wikipedia!

Anonymous said...

Thanks very much, this has been very helpful. Much better to understand than Wikipedia!

Anonymous said...

this was very helpful for me, very straight forward and clear description and answer for what cubism is, thanks a load!

Anonymous said...

this was very helpful for me, very straight forward and clear description and answer for what cubism is, thanks a load!

Anonymous said...

Thanks really helped with my homework.

Anonymous said...

amazing