III. Cubism

The Impact of Cubism on Modern Sculpture 

 

III. Cubism

  

Pablo Picasso, 「Head of Woman」, 1909 ~ 1910 & 「Glass of Absinthe 」, 1914

The Cubist movement is one of the most important turning points in modern art. Because of the appearance of Cubism, most new art forms started to set apart from traditional approaches in obvious ways.

 

And then who is the inventor of Cubism? Generally to say, Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso invented Cubism in 1907 or 1908. Picasso made Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907 (New York, MOMA). This is often considered as proto-Cubist work. A year after, I think absolutely Braque saw this Picasso painting and was very impressed by Picasso's work and then he made Houses at L'Estaque, 1908 (Berne, Kstmus). There are two very important factors to appear in Cubism in the beginning. Those are Primitivism and the later works of Cézanne. Obviously Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907 was influenced by African sculpture and work. Picasso made woman figures simple and divided the canvas irregularly by light sources. Especially two female faces on the right in this painting surely look like African masks. In Braque's Houses at L'Estaque, 1908, we can realize that Braque was influenced by Ceznanne's The Monte Ste Victoire, 1904-1905 in terms of not only expressing the figure (houses and mountain) but also using colors. As I mentioned in my preface, in the beginning "Cubism" is a form of reaction against "Impressionism ", however I think Cubist artists such as Picasso, Braque, and Juan Gris developed their own style after understanding Impressionistic ｅxpression and were very much influenced by Impressionism. Of all the differences between Impressionism and Cubism the biggest difference is the subject matter. This means that the main subject of Impressionist artists is cityscape and city people, while Cubist artists usually treat nature as a subject . And then why did Cubist artists try to describe nature with cube and cylinder shapes? After the Impressionistic movement, most artists realized that the things we now see are not real; they are fake and tentative, not eternal, endless. And the things we see are not two-dimensional but three-dimensional things. Naturally Cubist artists tried to divide the scene into several irregular spaces by different perspectives, light, and darkness. And though the influence of Primitivism, they make figures simple and tried to made figures three-dimensional with cubes and cylinder shapes. Because of this point, I would like to understand the Cubist movement in the succession of realistic movements. Absolutely this cubist ｅxpression is very different from realism, but it is very similar to the real in terms of three-dimensionality because everything we can see is three-dimensional.

 

In sculpture Picasso made Head of a Woman, 1909-1910 and Glass of Absinthe, 1914. Even though he made several pieces of proto-cubistic sculptures in 1907, his major cubistic sculpture is Head of a Woman. Surely this sculpture is connected with his painting, Woman with Pears, Horta, 1909, not only in the subject matter (Fernande) but also shape, color, values, and most other aspects. Picasso made Woman with Pears in Horta, summer 1909, and then he returned to Paris. After his return from Horta, he made Head of Woman. I think Picasso wanted to make sculpture to examine and to express his full understanding of Cubism (Analytical Cubism) in translating his thought and understanding of Cubism in his painting (Two-Dimensionality) to this three-dimensional sculpture. There are many advanced aspects in Woman with Pears, 1909 compared with Picasso's early works such as Repose, 1908, Fruit and Glass, 1908, and Bust of A Man, 1908. The shade is more gradually developed, the surface is divided into small and more complex units, and although the fruits look like rounded figures, the outline and contour is stronger and angular . There are some similarities between this Picasso sculpture and Rodin's unfinished quality works in shape , but I think Picasso's Head of Woman, 1909 and Rodin's unfinished works do not have much relationship. Rodin's works with an unfinished appearance were made by accident at the foundry in the process of bronze casting work , while Picasso made his sculpture on purpose, planned by light and darkness, light and shadow. After making this three-dimensional work, he did not make any sculpture until 1912. Between 1910 - 1912, Picasso had developed his understanding of analytical cubism gradually. Picasso created a new way of making works- assemblage. (collage) Around 1912, he started to use real newspapers and magazines in his assemblage works. This is a sensational event in this period, and these works were made in the manner of 'Ready-Made .' I surely believe that Marcel Duchamp was strongly influenced and inspired by Picasso's assemblage works and this became a catalyst to make his main concept of art- 'Ready-Made', though he said he was inspired by the bicycle wheel in the warehouse in 1913.

 

For instance, Picasso made Guitar, early 1912 and Man with a Hat, late 1912. Picasso used sheet metal and iron strings and real newspaper sheets – ready-made forms - to make them. This collage and constructivism period from 1912 to 1914 is called the 'Synthetic Cubism Period.'

 

In 1914 Picasso made one of his major sculptures during his lifetime, Glass of Absinthe, Paris, 1914. This is the only sculpture Picasso made from 1910 to 1926 . This appearance looks so funny, and even is not matched to the title- Glass of Absinthe. This is made of bronze and uses a real sugar spoon- Ready-Made aspect. And then why did Picasso want to make this kind of funny sculpture? According to William Rubin, Picasso returned to the possibilities of transparency that had concerned him in the sheet metal Guitar . This is true. Picasso was very much concerned about 'Transparency.' This Glass of Absinthe is one of a series. Picasso made many sculptures with same shape and material, but in different colors or without color. I think most art critics and art historians missed a very important point in this sculpture. Most scholars just pointed out the transparency of the upper part of this sculpture, because they did not realize this sculpture is composed of two identical glasses. This means that this is absolutely symmetrical vertically. I think the upper glass is the real glass of absinthe on the glass table, and the lower glass is the reflection of the real glass of absinthe or illusion through the glass table. one day Picasso saw this accidentally in a cafe, and was strongly impelled to make this sculpture. (three-dimensional thing) There is an apparent contrast between the upper glass and lower glass. Picasso cut out the upper glass by his analytical cubistic way connected with the light source and glass transparency, he just left the whole shape of the glass in the lower part. I think this is his rational plan to show the viewer his concept and his procedure in his sculpture. There is some space between the lower and upper part glass which is the glass table space. on the right, the very colorful figure could be the napkin or handkerchief which has flower prints on it. And as I mentioned Picasso used a real sugar spoon in the manner of ready-made. There could appear a spoon figure (shade of real spoon) in the glass below by using light from the top.             
   
Picasso and Braque essentially abandoned these forms of Cubism at the outbreak of World War I, in 1914. But their new concept and ideology of art influenced strongly later tendencies in art. Futurism is the representative movement influenced by Cubism.
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