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Analytical Cubism
In The Path to Cubism, published in 1920, Kahnweiler first made the distinction between Analytical and Synthetic Cubism that later art historians borrowed and used. Kahnweiler used the term Analytical Cubism to characterize the work produced by Picasso and Braque from about 1908 to 1912. The idea behind their work of this period was an extension of Cézanne's; they wanted to paint not the appearance of the subject (after all, a camera can do that) but an analysis of the subject. Cubism has nothing to do with cubes; the work of this period instead looks like a shimmering group of facets, because appearance is fragmented into discontinuous planes. The word "analysis" comes from a Greek word meaning "to undo," "to loosen throughout," and so it is fitting that this style of painting aimed at an understanding of the subject by breaking the subject up into constituent parts. Picasso's Analytical Cubist work is mostly in very dull colors, browns and blacks and grays, so as not to distract the viewer's attention from the formal experiment. By comparing Braque's "Houses at L'Estaque" with a photograph of the view that he was painting, one can clearly see how Analytical Cubism renders a subject. The best way to understand what Analytical Cubism means is to look at the pictures; it is, after all, a visual concept. Picasso's development of the style over time shows what he was aiming for. -
Art Nouveau
People began speaking of "Art Nouveau"–which means "New Art" in French–in the 1890s. Architects, who were now as likely to be using iron and glass as stone, felt that different building materials called for a new style of ornament; they were ready to draw on sources besides the Greek and Roman, which had been very nearly the only source of architectural inspiration since the Renaissance. Asian art was held up as a new model for European art. However, Art Nouveau did not just copy Asian examples, but transformed them into something new. The influence of the sweeping arabesques of Asian decoration encouraged architects to try to transpose these curves into iron. From Japanese art in particular, Europeans saw that design could be harmonious without being symmetrical. The super-curvaceous, asymmetrical designs of the Belgian architect Victor Horta (1861-1947) were wildly popular in the 1890s. The influence of Asian art was even more profound among painters and printmakers. Instead of aiming to present a convincing representation of reality, artists tried to paint pleasing patterns. "Decorative" was a word of high praise. Pictorial space was flattened and contrast sharpened, so that outlines and shapes took on a life of their own. The work of Aubrey Beardsley, inspired by Japanese prints, was well loved. -
Assemblage
An assemblage is, simply, a sculpture that is "assembled" instead of carved or chiseled or cast. The sculpture consists of miscellaneous objects and materials glued or otherwise stuck together, like a three-dimensional collage. Picasso's "Guitar" (1912) is a good example. -
Avant-garde
"Avant-garde" is French for "advance guard." The term describes how certain groups of artists since the mid-nineteenth century have thought of themselves as plunging bravely into the future, ahead of the laggards of mainstream society. It is difficult to pinpoint the origin of the phrase; an early example of its use, in a French essay from 1845 on the role of the artist, gives a good sense of its meaning (the pompous tone is also quite typical): Art, the expression of society, manifests, in its highest soaring, the most advanced social tendencies: it is the forerunner and therevealer. Therefore, to know whether art worthily fulfills itsproper mission as initiator, whether the artist is truly of theavant-garde, one must know where Humanity is going, what the destinyof the human race is... -
Blue Period
Towards the end of 1901, Picasso started painting entirely in shades of blue; his subject matter was appropriately melancholy–emaciated vagrants and old prostitutes. He continued painting in this style until the end of 1904, when rose tones began to dominate his palette. -
Collage
"Collage" is French for "gluing," and refers to making pictures by pasting together scavenged scraps (like old newspapers, photographs, pieces of cloth, whatever) instead of drawing or painting. Picasso's "Still Life with Chair Caning" (1912) introduced the practice into the fine arts, although, strictly speaking, he did not invent it: the technique is found in nineteenth-century folk art. Picasso, however, was the first to see its possibilities in a modern context. -
Cubism
Cubism was a new style of painting–often divided into two main phases or tendencies, Analytical and Synthetic–invented by Picasso and Braque. Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" (1907), which took "primitive" art as its inspiration, cleared the way for this radical redefinition of painting. Other pieces by Picasso in 1907, such as "Mother and Child," show how the influence of African masks moved him in a proto-Cubist direction. By October 1907, the poet Apollinaire had introduced Picasso to Braque, a young painter extremely devoted to Cézanne. Together the two developed Cubism, beginning in 1908. Their partnership and cooperative development of Cubism was disrupted by the outbreak of World War I in August, 1914. Picasso's last major purely Cubist work was his "Three Musicians" of 1921; afterwards, his interests turned towards Surrealism, politics, and the old masters. All of Picasso's later works engaged in clear dialogue with Cubism, but did so as they would with an already-developed, complete style–that is, they did not try to reshape or rework Cubism, simply referencing it and leaving it intact. -
Fascism
Fascism arose in the social disorder and nationalist discontent in Italy after World War I. The word was first used by the political party founded by Mussolini, who ruled Italy from 1922 until defeat in World War II, but it is used more generally to describe right-wing totalitarianism, such as that of Hitler's Germany and Franco's Spain. Picasso was very involved emotionally in the Spanish Civil War and sold work to benefit the Spanish Republic; one of his most iconic works, "Guernica" (1937), was commissioned by the Spanish Republic and represents the barbarity of a Fascist attack on the town of Guernica. Picasso's embrace of Communism was probably an effort to voice his rejection of Fascism as loudly as possible. -
Fauvist
In 1905 a group of young painters exhibited in Paris. They began to be called "Les Fauves," or "the wild beasts" because they used such savagely bright colors and free brushstrokes and disregarded all the traditional rules of illusionistic rendering. They were not really so very wild; their compositions aimed towards more at decoration than at revolution. Georges Braque was a member; later, explaining the decline of the Fauve movement, he remarked, "you can't remain forever in a state of paroxysm." The dull colors of Analytical Cubism were a sort of counter-movement to the wild colors of Fauvism. Henri Matisse became the most well known of the group and, later, perhaps the most famous artist of the century besides Picasso. -
Fin-de-siecle
"Fin-de-siecle" means "end of the century" in French. The term is used to describe the 1890s and a particular atmosphere of decadence, like that palpable in Art Nouveau, especially in the work of Aubrey Beardsley. -
Illusionistic
A painting or drawing is illusionistic if it tries to create the illusion of being what it represents. For example, a painting of a landscape might look almost like a window, looking out onto a view, or a plaster wall might be painted to look like marble, or the shell of a lobster might be rendered in such minute detail that it almost fools the eye. When one praises a painting for "looking very realistic," one is praising the skill of the artist in creating illusionistic effects. -
Impressionist
The Impressionists were a loose group of late-nineteenth-century French painters who painted casual, everyday scenes of middle-class life with bright colors laid on rapidly, almost hastily. Some of the best known include Manet, Monet, Renoir, and Pissarro. While the Impressionists' work became extremely popular in the twentieth century–a museum show would be an almost guaranteed blockbuster–they were outcasts in the art world of their own time. One critic wrote in 1876: An exhibition has just been opened at Durand-Ruel whichallegedly contains paintings. I enter and my horrified eyes beholdsomething terrible. Five or six lunatics, among them a woman, have joined together and exhibited their works. I have seen peoplerock with laughter in front of these pictures, but my heart bled whenI saw them. These would-be artists call themselves revolutionaries,"Impressionists." They take a piece of canvas, color and brush, daub a few patches of paint on it at random, and sign the whole thing with their name. -
Minotaur
In Greek mythology, the Minotaur was a monster with the head of a bull and body of a man, born from a mating between the queen of Crete and a white bull. The monster was confined to a maze built by the master craftsman Daedalus. Athens had to make a yearly sacrifice of seven boys and seven girls for the Minotaur to devour, until the creature was finally slain by the hero Theseus. -
Modernism
When we say that something is modern, we usually mean only that it is up-to- date, of the moment, the latest thing. The word modern has been used in this sense for centuries and centuries, and we still use it this way. For example, if we install new appliances in the kitchen, we might say that we had modernized it. However–and this is where things get tricky–artists in the early twentieth century had such an acute sense of themselves as up-to-date, of- the-moment, the latest thing, that the word "modern" stuck to them. And so, strangely, "modern" has come to describe a historical period that has passed. Sometimes museums have one curator for "modern" art, roughly defined as that produced in the first half of the twentieth century, and another for "contemporary" art, meaning art produced since 1950 or so. To avoid confusing the contradictory meanings of the word "modern," one can use the word "modernist" to describe the art of the historical period from 1900 to 1950; this way, one can still describe one's kitchen as "modern," and signify that one has installed a new dishwasher–and not a Picasso print. -
Neo-classicism
In art, classicism refers to the style of Greco-Roman antiquity–white marble sculptures of naked heroes, red-and-black pottery, ruins with columns, etc. Since the Renaissance, the ancient world has been a continuous source of inspiration for European art and architecture; thus banks in American cities are often made to look like Greek temples, for example. Art that is not in fact ancient and Greco-Roman, but is inspired by or made to imitate it, is called neo-classical. -
Old Masters
Distinguished, canonical European artists from the period from about 1500s through the early 1700s, especially the painters who are in every art history textbook, are called old masters. -
Papier Collé
"Papier collé" is French for "glued paper" and refers to collages which use not only found scraps but also invented shapes cut from blank paper. Georges Braque invented this technique and shared it with Picasso in 1912. -
Salon
The Salon was an annual exhibition of art works chosen by jury and presented by the French Academy since 1737. It later became a more generic term for a large art exhibition featuring multiple artists. -
Surrealist
Surrealism was an literary and art movement officially founded in Paris by André Breton with his Manifeste du surréalisme in 1924. The movement celebrated weirdness for weirdness's sake and held that the unconscious, combined with chance, was the source of art; thus, hypothetically, the purest Surrealism was achieved by psychic automatism, by letting the brush wander over the paper without conscious control. Most of the most important Surrealist writers were friends of Picasso's, including Louis Aragon, Paul Éluard, and Jean Cocteau. The most famous Surrealist image, which captures the obsessive alternate reality that the Surrealists were trying to enter, is the Spanish painter Salvador Dali's "The Persistence of Memory" (1931.) -
Symbolism
Symbolism was mostly a literary movement, never officially organized–perhaps it was actually more a contagious mood than anything else–although certain visual artists are often associated with it. The Symbolists sprang up first in late nineteenth-century France, rebelling against the predominant naturalism and realism of their time. They wanted to express by suggestion rather than by direct statement, liking to give everything an enigmatic air. Symbolism first developed in poetry, where it spawned free verse. Forefathers included the poets Baudelaire, Verlaine, and Rimbaud; practitioners included Laforgue, Moréas, and Régnier. The Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin is perhaps the most well known Symbolist painter; his pictures are like allegories without keys, drenched in melancholy and mystery. His paintings exist more to conjure up a certain mood than to convey any idea. Other artists working in this vein include Odilon Redon and Gustave Moreau. The Surrealists drew heavily on the Symbolists. -
Synthetic Cubism
In "The Path to Cubism" (1920), Kahnweiler designates as Synthetic Cubism Braque's and Picasso's work after around 1912. Typically both more playful and more colorful than Analytical Cubism, Synthetic Cubism was based on the new techniques of the collage and the papier collé. Even when there were no actual pasted scraps involved, the technique of collage, with its sharp edges and stylistic discontinuities, still left its marks. Picasso's rather jazzy "Three Musicians" (1921), his last major Synthetic Cubist work, is all oil paint on canvas, but one can see that, at this point, Picasso painted like a collage; the shapes are flat and sharp-edged, as if they were cut paper. The pattern on the outfit of the guitar-player in the center is flat; rather than mimicking the way in which patterned fabric curves over the body, Picasso creates the effect of a cut-out piece of patterned paper pasted right onto the canvas. The incongruity of the small detail of the musical notes on the score held by the musician to the right with the extreme simplification and lack of detail throughout most of the painting is also typical of collage. -
Spanish Civil War
At the time of the Spanish Civil War, Spain had been Europe's backwards backwater for over a century. The monarchy had been overthrown rather quietly in 1931, and Spain was governed by a liberal, modernizing republican government. This government moved against the privileges of the Catholic Church and did some small-scale land reform, which was much too little to satisfy the leftists but was enough to make the priests, landowners, and former royalists very angry. The rightists took over the government in 1933 and were quite brutal towards the Catalans and unionists. By the time of the general elections of 1936, the line between left and right was clearly drawn and tension ran high. Leftists joined together in a Popular Front against the rightists–the priests, the landowners, the former royalists and the Fascists, known in Spain as the Falangists. The Popular Front won a narrow victory but the right-leaning army, led by General Francisco Franco, decided to take over the country. Very bloody civil war ensued, complicated by the intervention of Hitler and Mussolini on Franco's side and of Stalin on the republicans' side, until 1939, when Franco emerged victorious, crushing the leftists.
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World War I
World War I, 1914-18, sprung from imperialistic, territorial, and economic rivalry among the great powers of Europe, was horribly bloody; the suffering was further compounded because it all seemed perfectly senseless, the product of violent nationalism and complicated, distant diplomatic maneuvers that had nothing to do with the common people who ended up fighting and dying. Poison gas and large-scale trench warfare were used for the first time. The Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919 after an armistice in 1918, imposed harsh reparations on Germany which led to more rancor, and, eventually, World War II. The generation of artists active in the 1920s (including the Surrealists) was marked by a disgust at the older generation, for having dragged them into such disgusting brutality, similar to that which stirred up the anti-war movement of the 1960s and '70s in the United States.
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World War II
After World War I, a defeated Germany, disappointed Italy, and ambitious Japan all became extremely militaristic and nationalistic. War broke out, after a long period of extreme tension, with the German invasion of Poland in 1939. German forces swept through France in 1940; armistice was signed on June 22 and the Vichy regime, a Fascist government that served as the Germans' tool, was set up. Picasso and other artists and writers managed to survive in Occupied Paris until the city was freed by the Allies in August, 1944, after the landing at Normandy, but it was a very dark time. Some of Picasso's friends, such as Sartre and Aragon, worked in the resistance against the occupying German forces. Picasso's post-war embrace of Communism was probably all the more ardent because he had experienced the Nazi Occupation.
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