Cubism

The little art style that…..

Invented a whole new way of seeing the worldDefined art of the 20th century

Influenced every major artist now and in the future

Once upon a time, in a land far, far away…

An artist’s primary job was to paint pictures of people,

Leonardo Da Vinci, The Mona Lisa, 1479

places and stories so that everybody could know what they looked like.

Jacques Louis David, The Oath of the Horatii, 1784

Then one day, in the middle of the 1800s,

someone invented a camera which could

do the artists’ job perfectly.

The artists were free to paint Jackson Pollock, Number 1, 1949

And sculpt however they wanted.

Umberto Boccioni, Continuation of a Figure in Space, 1912

So they ended up inventing abstract art, images and ideas

that don’t represent the way things are in real life.

Georges Braque, Glass On a Table, 1909

Pablo Picassoone of the most famous artists in the world, and some of his friends

Were the first artists to make paintings that you really couldn’t tell what they really are.

Fernand Leger, The City, 1919

Cubism

Pablo Picasso, Le pigeon aux petits-pois, 1912

Picasso, much like other artists learning to be abstract,

started out by painting realistically.

Pablo Picasso, Self Portrait with Uncombed Hair, 1896

As a young boy he was an amazing artist. This was

painted at just 12 years old.

Later on, Picasso started to change, or abstract his colors to fit his mood and his life.

Like blue when he was sad….during his “Blue Period”

Pablo Picasso, The Old Guitarist, 1902.

and pink, bright colors when he was happy….. during his “Rose Period”

Pablo Picasso, Family of Saltimbanques, 1905

Picasso found inspiration in many places and wanted to take his painting beyond something you could see in real life or through a camera.

First, he like the African art style which had lots of angles in its masks and sculptures.

Picasso liked that a sculpture was 3-dimensional and a person could see all sides.

Paintings were limited because you could only see one side of an object.

Georges Braque, was another artists in Paris, who was excited about Picasso’s Cubist ideas.

Cubism is a result of trying to combine the sculpture ideas and African art ideas into a painting.

They created Cubism by turning all objects into geometric shapes,

Georges Braque, Houses at L'Estaque 1908

Mountains are pyramids

House a cube with a triangle on top.

Objects look like they were build out of geometric blocks.

Still Life with Flowers, Juan Gris, 1912

Flower Petals are slices of circles

Lots of triangles at base

Pablo Picasso, Wine Glass, 1913.

Triangle at top of wine glass

Rectangles and circles around neck

Curly-que at base

Looking at objects from multiple angles.

Front and side of heads

Top and bottom of table

Pablo Picasso, Three Musicians. 1917

Front of Guitar

Sides of Guitar

Table Tops

Juan Gris, The Guitar, 1918

The artists worked so closely together, some of their pictures ended up to look almost the same.

Georges Braque, Man with a Guitar, 1911

Pablo Picasso, The Aficionado, 1912

Cubism was an inspiration for other abstract artists and art movements, afterward.

You can see lots of geometric shapes in this abstract art from 1943.

Piet Mondrian, Broadway Boogie Woogie, 1943

Now that you have learned about Cubism, let’s try it out.

We are going to draw Cubist faces. Like Picasso, we are going to draw real faces first.

Next, we will draw faces using Cubist techniques like multiple angles and geometric shapes.

Cubist faces are going to apply traditional face drawing proportions and elements.

Leonardo Da Vinci, Face Drawing.

Start with an oval for a head, add guidelines for your facial features.

Center line

Hair Line

Eyes

Mouth

Eyes are almond shapes, pointy a corners. They should cross the guideline.

Eyes are one eye width apart.

Nose and ears are in between the eye guidelines and mouth guidelines.

Nose should cross the center guideline.

Mouth is between the chin and mouth guideline. It should cross the center guideline.

Your mouth always has two lips on the outside of mouth opening.

Add a neck and hair.

Your hair should cover the top of your head and come down to the hair line guideline.

These faces are also going to apply Cubist elements of geometric shapes, multiple perspective and abstraction.

Juan Gris, Portrait of Picasso, 1912

Start with a face oval, in the middle of the face,draw a profile.

So now you can see the face from the front and the side.

Add your facial features,

Eyes

Nose

Mouth

and scramble it up.

but you can make them into geometric shapes

You can finish your faces with additional shapes, hair, ears and

a neck.

No floating heads!

When you color

Take a tip from Picasso and make sure your colors are reflecting your persons’ feelings.

Happy

Sad

Using geometric shapes all over.

Being able to see things from different angles and sides.

Cubism Faces should have the layout of a real face and use Cubism techniques.

Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Dora Maar, 1917

So, what do we know?

Cubism is the first Abstract art style.

Picasso could paint really well and used colors to show his feelings

Cubism uses geometric shapes and multiple angles

Now I can….

Draw a realistic face AND draw an awesome Cubist Face that uses color to show my persons’ feelings.

Images used:

Boccioni, U. (1932). Unique Forms of Continuation in Space. [Bronze]. Retrieved from http://www.michaelarnoldart.com/Umberto%20Boccioni%20Futurist%20Artist.htm

Braque, G. (1909) Glass on a Table [Oil painting]. Retrieved from http://www.tate.org.uk/collection/T/T05/T05028_9.jpg

Braque, G. (1911) Man with a Guitar [Oil painting]. Retrieved from Artchive database.

Braque, G. (1908) The Houses a L’Estaque [Oil painting]. Retrieved from Artchive database.

Da Vinci, L. (1479). Mona Lisa [Oil painting]. Retrieved from http://portraitxpress.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/mona-lisa.jpg

Da Vinci, L. Facial Proportions [Charcoal]. Retrieved from http://www.globalgallery.com/enlarge/81941/

Gris, J. (1912). Portrait of Picasso. [Oil Painting]. Retrieved from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/81/JuanGris.Portrait_of_Picasso.jpg

Gris, J. (1912). Still life with Flowers. [Oil Painting]. Retrieved from Artchive database.

Gris, J. (1918). The Guitar. [Oil Painting]. Retrieved from Artchive database.

Leger, F. (1919). The City. [Oil Painting]. Retrieved from Artchive database.

Louis, J. D. (1784). The Oath of the Horatii. [Oil Painting]. Retrieved from http://www.jacqueslouisdavid.org/Oath-of-the-Horatii-large.html

Mask Of Life [Wooden Mask]. (2006). Retrieved from Modern Images database.

Mondrian, P. (1942). Broadway Boogie Woogie. [Acrylic painting]. Retrieved from http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/1/13/Mondrian_Broadway_Boogie_Woogie.jpg

Okoye, C. Point of No Return. [Acrylic painting]. Retrieved from http://www.chidi.com/images/cubism/smallphotos/history-of-cubism-pointofnoreturn.jpg

Picasso, P. (1917). Le pigeon aux petits-pois [Oil painting]. Retrieved from http://aroundthesphere.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/picasso-le-pigeon-aux-petits-pois-1911.jpg

Picasso, P. (1917). Portrait of Dora Maar. [Oil painting]. Retrieved from http://cgfa.acropolisinc.com/picasso/picasso22.jpg

Picasso, P. (1896). Self Portrait with Uncombed Hair [Oil painting]. Retrieved from Artchive database.

Picasso, P. (1912). The Afficionado . [Oil painting]. Retrieved from Artchive database.

Picasso, P. (1906). The Family of Saltambiques. [Oil painting]. Retrieved from Artchive database.

Picasso, P. (1902). The Old Guitarist. [Oil painting]. Retrieved from Artchive database.

Picasso, P. (1917). Three Musicians. [Oil painting]. Retrieved from http://www.join2day.net/abc/P/picasso/picasso199.JPG

Picasso, P. (1913). Wine Glass. [Oil painting]. Retrieved from Artchive database.

Pollock, J. (1949). Number 1. [Acrylic painting]. Retrieved from Artchive database.

Portrait of Georges Braque [Photograph]. (1915). Retrieved from http://www.chez.com/cubismatica/ artistes.htm

Portrait of Pablo Picasso [Photograph]. (1955). Retrieved from http://www.cheqway.us/northwood/art/pages/art%20links.aspx