Cubism

Cubism Essay – Paul Cezanne and Georges Braque

Cubism was one of the most significant art movements of the twentieth century, which was well known for its abstract style. Cubism went through four different phases; therefore I have chosen two artists that work in the style of cubism, but in different phases to show how they differ.

The first artist is Paul Cezanne, who was a French artist that worked in the style of impressionism, and then moved onto the movement of Cubism. He was born in 1839, and died in 1906. Cezanne was known to be one of the main inspirations for the Cubism movement.

This painting is called 'Bibemus Quarry', which was done in 1895. The medium is oil on canvas.

Cezanne was known for wanting to abandon the idea of traditional perspective drawing, and instead create illusion of depth. He liked to contrast the areas in his paintings by flattening the space, in order to emphasis on their surface. This then illustrates the difference between his paintings and the reality. Paul Cezanne saw painting in a far more abstract way, which was very influential in the art movement.

My second artist is Georges Braque, who was also a French artist. He was born in 1882, and died 1963. His work was greatly influenced from Cezanne’s Cubism work; we see a great resemblance to this especially in 1907-8.

However, Braque and Picasso both agreed that they thought Cubism should not be abstract. He worked in the Analytical Cubism phase which began in 1907. In this style, artists would study the subject and break it up into different blocks, and view them from a range angles.

This is an early example of Analytical Cubism. This painting is called ‘Violin and Candlestick’ which was done in 1910. The medium is oil on canvas, and the sizing is 61 x 50cm. In the painting you can see the broken up pieces of the violin and the candlestick. The various angles and blocks of the objects are presented to the viewer. Braque said that this style allowed the viewer to "get closer to the object."

Overall, I do not immediately love the work from the Cubism art movement, however, I do find it interesting how the artists have changed the traditional ways, and have experimented with angles and scale to make each image unique.