Cubism

Contrary to popular belief, Picasso is not the founder of Cubism. He was at best, co-founder. Georges Braque is often said to be either founder or co-founder of cubism. At one time Braque and Picasso shared a place and together they explored the realm of cubism. Cubism is more than just distorted looking people and things. It is a new way of looking at a subject, and portraying it on a bit of canvas.

When cubism was first being developed, Picasso and Braque merely explored the possibilities of showing an object in motion or many different sides of an object at once. They showed how they felt about an object with those blocked out pieces of space and multi-faceted prisms of paint. As they worked with the cubism and developed their styles which were very similar to one another, they grew into analytical cubism. This is a much more complex portrayal of their subject matter. One might think to see the top, bottom, outside, inside, past, present, and future of a violin in neat overlapping cubes like time existing in all places at the same time. A bowl of fruit could be seen from right on top of the fruit, a hundred miles away, and rotten and fresh in both places.

A seemingly important aspect of cubism to the co-founders was that geometry and neatness play a role in the early styles. Objects could easily be seen as what they were supposed to be and the extra exploration of cubism throughout the image was a bonus. End the end however, Picasso continued to develop his style to what we commonly see today and identify as a Picasso. Women with 3 eyes or two arms coming out of a hip, or even as a block with breasts and a frown.

Cubism, however it may have developed beyond its initial form, is still an important and exciting way to look at and create art. It offers us the opportunity to create many scenes about one subject on one canvas. Such as the fresh and rotten fruit side by side. However it is also an intimidating art form to tackle for beginning and experienced artists alike. The geometry may seem too much or not enough. There may be too much realism or not enough. You may not even know how or why to overlap one shape over another.

Just know that these are all valid concerns. When expressing oneself in cubism, you must still think about the basic principles of art. Of prime importance in cubism is composition. The layout of a piece including all its various shapes and lines have to be pleasing to the eye and make sense. A banana flying in a fan shape wouldn't make a whole lot of sense in a cubism piece. A banana curled and brown or oblong and yellow on several sides of an apple would make sense. Even a banana half peeled and whole together would be good.

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