Cubism

Question 1

Answer 1

Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907

some consider most important painting of 20th c.

Proto-Cubism- analytic approach of Cezanne- breaking down forms into geometric elements

Avignon- red-light district of Barcelona, in contrast to original sketch- viewer becomes client, women expose themselves, raise arms above head seductively

unlike Fauvism- colors not arbitrary, but brushwork is flat and angular; modelling African masks to flatten and geometricize faces (primitivism= exploitation of non-Western motifs)

Picasso’s revolutionary technique= spatio-temporal collapse- multiple angles simultaneously- causes us to take both space and time into account

Question 2

Answer 2

Georges Braque, Violin and Palette, 1909-10

good example of first stage of Cubism, “Analytic Cubism”

still life approached from multiple angles and then recombined

limited range of colors to force us to look at it from different planes