Analytical Cubism - A Stan klos Website
Analytical Cubism
By: Neal McLaughlin
Art: the freedom to express one's views of the world
without fear of condemnation or ridicule. Art is subjective; what may evoke the
emotions in one viewer may have little or no impact at all upon another.
It is this freedom of self-expression that continually
moves art into new directions. Each art movement is to some degree, influenced
by the preceding movement and in turn influences the next movement. By building
upon the style and techniques of former movements, practicing artists are able
to enhance and update these trends into a new and exciting era in the next art
movement.
Generally, it is difficult to foresee exactly how much
influence a new movement will have upon current artistic trends. Some schools
will be followed and practiced for generations while others such as Optic Art
and Symbolism will reign for a short period of time before stepping aside to a
newer camp.
However, every so often a school evolves which not only
dominates the art community, but will also be so innovative that it will have a
profound impact in changing the art world entirely.
When painters Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Georges Braque
(1882-1963) combined their ideas and talents at the beginning of the 20th
Century they would be accredited with creating a movement that would continue to
reverberate throughout the twentieth-century.
Inspired and influenced by the works of Paul Cézanne
(1839-1906) Picasso and Braque adopted his quest of searching their subjects for
the basic geometric shapes. While Cézanne was dedicated to applying this
technique to his landscape renderings, Paul and Georges concentrated their
applications to their individual subject matters.
The general idea behind Cubism is to take a subject matter
and then smash it to smithereens, figuratively speaking, analyze the fragments
and then use one's imagination to reassemble the sharp-edged, geometrical
shapes.
The practice of the Cubists was to abandon the traditional
techniques of artistic composition and instead, depict the subject matter in a
two-dimensional plane void of form and space where it was then possible to view
the subject from many different angles at the same time.
Although the Cubism movement was relatively short-lived,
(1907-1914) it would experience one offshoot, (Synthetic Cubism: to which the
artists, including Picasso and Braque would abandon their more subdued palettes
for brighter colors, enhancing shapes, stenciling and collage.) as well as
influencing at least six future movements.
The world of art has and always will be a land of
enchantment, excitement and magic.
This is a world where one can apply his or her own
creative ideas without the fear of being labeled or judged. Art allows us to be
free. Free to openly pursue our dreams without limitations and with endless
possibilities.