Cubism in twentieth century painting

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

This direction has become an organic continuation of the previous development of twentieth-century art in general and painting in particular.

The origins of this process should be sought in the work of the French Impressionists half a century earlier, but cubism unfolded in full force and breadth in the painting of the twentieth century.

What preceded this

The style of cubism arose as a logical conclusion to the search for new forms in the visual arts. Its first manifestations can be observed in the works of the French post-impressionist Paul Cezanne. The key point in his painting is the emphasis on the volume of the depicted objects. The Impressionist painters who preceded him thought in large patches of color and color harmonies.

Cezanne was the first to set foot on this path of an exaggerated three-dimensional image of the forms of objects. This was the beginning of cubism in painting. The plastic methods of transferring forms discovered by Cezanne were picked up by other authors. A new approach to depicting the visible world opened up new, previously inaccessible expressive possibilities. Many were very wary of new trends in art and accused the Cubists of breaking with realistic traditions that had been established over many centuries. But new artistsleast of all they were interested in the realistic display of the objective world, they displayed in their painting, first of all, their own thoughts and emotions that arise in the soul when looking at nature. Cubism in painting opened up this opportunity for them more widely than ever before.

Varieties of Cubism

The new direction in art quickly gained popularity. Already at the beginning of the twentieth century, cubism in painting became fashionable. Cubist paintings adorned fashionable aristocratic salons and sold expensively in leading commercial galleries. Cubist artists were already recognized as classics during their lifetime. The most prominent representative of this style is the famous Pablo Picasso. Cubism in painting is best studied through the example of his work. This style has gone through several logical stages of development. Moreover, the latter largely negates the original one.

This is about analytical and synthetic cubism. At the first stage of cubism, the three-dimensional forms of the visible world were subjected to analytical decomposition into structural elements and the simplest geometric figures. And at the final, synthetic stage of development, something completely new was created from elementary structural elements, something that no one had seen before. Subsequently, on the basis of cubism, many new trends in the art of the twentieth century grew. First of all, this applies to expressionism and surrealism. Architecture and sculpture could not stay away from cubism. The search for artists of the cubist direction found a lively response both in the public consciousness andin many other areas of art: in literature, theatrical scenography and cinema. Cubism left the brightest trace in many types of applied arts, in all types of design up to the fashion industry.