The Origins of Cubism Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907

Picasso, Landscape with a Factory at Horta de Ebro, 1908 An Early Form of Cubism Picasso, Landscape with a Factory at Horta de Ebro, 1908 Georges Braque

Cézanne, c. 1900 Picasso, 1908 Another example of the relationship between Picasso and Cézanne

Picasso, Portrait of Ambroise Vollard, 1910

Cézanne, Portrait of Ambroise Vollard, 1899 Picasso, Portrait of Ambroise Vollard, 1910

“Analytic” Cubism (or “High” Cubism) This type of Cubism is usually called Analytic Cubism because it sort of fits the definition of “analysis” as the breaking up of something complex into its various simpler elements; and also in order to differentiate it from a later form of Cubism called Synthetic Cubism, which supposedly follows the opposite process. However, we will not concern ourselves with these terms in this class. Picasso, Portrait of Ambroise Vollard, 1910

Picasso, Portrait of Ambroise Vollard, 1910 Voids seal over, becoming solid, while solids flatten out and fragment. . . . This type of Cubism is characterized by its overlapping, intersecting, interpenetrating planes . . . and by the integration of the forms with the space around them. . . . Picasso, Portrait of Ambroise Vollard, 1910

Matisse, 1905 Nolde, 1909 Picasso, 1910 Cubism compared with Fauvism and German Expressionism

• Abstract art: Art that doesn’t represent anything from the visible world • Non-Objective: Synonym for abstract; art containing no recognizable “objects” • Mysticism: A theory or doctrine according to which knowledge of God, of spiritual truth, of ultimate reality cannot be attained through reason, rational intelligence, or sense perception, but only through subjective experience, meditation, inner vision, etc.

Vasily Kandinsky (Russian, active in Germany), Landscape with a Church, 1905

Post-Impressionist roots of early Kandinsky Kandinsky, Landscape with a Church, 1905 Post-Impressionist roots of early Kandinsky Van Gogh, Wheat Field and Cypress Trees, 1889

Landscape with a Church, 1905

Kandinsky’s conversion to pure abstract art Living in Munich in 1910, Kandinsky wrote about the following experience: “I was once enchanted by an unexpected view in my studio. It was the hour of approaching dusk. I came home with my paint box after making a study, still dreaming and wrapped up in the work I had completed, when suddenly I saw an indescribably beautiful picture drenched with an inner glow. At first I hesitated, then I rushed toward this mysterious picture, of which I saw nothing but forms and colors, and whose content was incomprehensible. Immediately I found the key to the puzzle: it was a picture I had painted, leaning against the wall, standing on its side. “The next day I attempted to get the same effect by daylight. I was only half-successful: even on its side I always recognized the objects, and the fine finish of dusk was missing. Now I knew for certain that the object harmed my paintings.”

Kandinsky, Painting with a Black Arch, 1912 Note: painted as a member of Der Blaue Reiter (“The Blue Rider”), an offshoot of German Expressionism. Formed in Munich in 1911, the group broke up with the outbreak of World War I in 1914.

Painting with a Black Arch, 1912 Sketch I for Composition VII, 1913

Sketch I for Composition VII Note: significance of “synesthesia”—a condition where the stimulus of one sense (say, color, which stimulates sight) can result in an experience of another sense (say, hearing).

Piet Mondrian (Dutch), Red Tree, 1908

Post-Impressionist roots of early Mondrian Mondrian, Red Tree, 1908 Van Gogh, Mulberry Tree, 1889 Post-Impressionist roots of early Mondrian

Red Tree, 1908 Tree, 1911

The influence of Cubism on Mondrian Picasso, Portrait of Ambroise Vollard, 1910 The influence of Cubism on Mondrian Mondrian, Tree, 1911

Kandinsky, 1912 Mondrian, 1911

Tree, 1911 Composition, 1917-18

Composition with Great Blue Plane, 1921 Composition, 1917-18

Composition with Great Composition with Red, Blue, Blue Plane, 1921 and Yellow, 1930 Note: painted as a member of De Stijl (“The Style”)—a Dutch art group with highly idealistic goals that took its name from a magazine of the same title founded in 1917.

Kandinsky Mondrian