The bold painter who scorns form... What's the story behind Cubism?
The French painter Georges Braque
When we think of "Cubism," Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque immediately come to mind, two artists who skillfully employed geometric shapes as the basis for their artworks. How did the fabric of this modern trend, rooted in the early twentieth century, come to be?
It all began when art critic Louis Vauxcelles coined the term "Cubism" after seeing a painting by the French painter Georges Braque titled "Houses at L'Estaque."
The term was coined after Vauxcelles observed that the artwork consisted of small cubes characterized by simplified form and dismantled perspective. He described Braque as a bold man who despises form, saying of him, "Let him reduce everything, places and characters, to geometric diagrams, to cubes."
Cubism evolved from 1907, distinguished by its fragmentation of traditional forms. Cubist artists disliked realistic representation and rejected linear perspective, which approximates the flat depiction of a three-dimensional scene in a two-dimensional space, much like paper.
Fed up with anything related to realistic art, Cubists dismantled objects into basic geometric forms like cubes, spheres, and cylinders, reassembling them in compositions far removed from reality.
Cubes and geometric shapes dominated every corner of art culture, but the glory of this era was short-lived; in 1914, Europe descended into its darkest hours, heralding the demise of this artistic direction.
The Cubist movement was affected by the war, with French painters summoned to join the ranks of soldiers. French painter Fernand Léger enlisted in the armed forces, continuing to paint from within the trenches despite the war taking him away from his canvases.
Andre Mare immortalized the living conditions of soldiers through watercolor drawings and colors. Albert Gleizes painted military doctors in geometric shapes.
During the conflict from 1914 to 1918, artists, like the majority of intellectuals and cultural figures, produced somewhat "national" works. However, given the brutality and prolonged duration of the conflict, which led to severe disillusionment, some painters attempted to represent the reality they saw by modifying their artistic styles. It was inevitable for modern warfare to appear in a modern way, accurately depicting the horrors of battle and injecting more realism into their artworks, as if geometric shapes no longer served the purpose of conveying the image!
The harshness of life during World War I & II through the eyes of Cubist art.
The painting "Soldier Playing Chess" by Metzinger, 1914.
The painting "Guernica" by Picasso as a protest against the German bombing of Spain.
The painting "Military Doctor" by Albert Gleizes
The Crashed Airplane (1916-1917).