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Short videos of artists experimenting to develop their sense of style

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Short videos of artists experimenting to develop their sense of style

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Create a new document and edit with others at the same time -- from your computer, phone or tablet. Get stuff done with or without an internet connection. Use Docs to edit Word files. Free from Google.

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What is cubism and why was it so radical?

In around 1907 two artists living in Paris called Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque developed a revolutionary new style of painting which transformed everyday objects, landscapes, and people into geometric shapes. In 1908 art critic Louis Vauxcelles, saw some landscape paintings by Georges Braque (similar to the picture shown above) in an exhibition in Paris, and described them as 'bizarreries cubiques' which translates as 'cubist oddities' - and the term cubism was coined.

By comparing a cubist still life with an earlier still life painted using a more traditional approach, we can see immediately just what it is that made cubism look so radically different from earlier painting styles. Both paintings are of musical instruments. The first is by Edward Collier and was painted in the seventeenth century. The second is by cubist Georges Braque.

Compare the way the instruments are painted in the paintings. Which look the most real? How has Collier made the objects in his painting look realistic? (Look at how he has used shading or tone, colour, perspective and also how he has applied the paint). What rules do you think the cubists broke?

Meet the cubists

Brassaï, photo of Picasso in his studio at 23 rue La Boétie, standing in front of Rousseau's Portrait of a Woman 1932. Musée Picasso © ESTATE BRASSAÏ -R.M.N.

Georges Braque, London 1946 (inner pages) from Tate Publishing

In 1907 Georges Braque visited Pablo Picasso's studio. This studio visit marked the beginning of one of the most important friendships in the history of art. Over the next few months and years the two artists shared their ideas, scrutinized each other's work, challenged and encouraged each other. At some stage in around 1907 or 1908 they invented an exciting new style of painting - cubism. Their close working relationship at that time was later described by Georges Braque:

The things that Picasso and I said to one another during those years will never be said again, and even if they were, no one would understand them anymore. It was like being roped together on a mountain

Picasso and Braque were soon joined in their art adventure by other artists who were experimenting with different ways of depicting the world around them. Artists such as Juan Gris, Albert Gleizes, Jean Metzinger and Robert Delaunay who all worked in a cubist style.

Cubism explained

Cubism looks very different to lots of other styles of painting. How does it work? What were Braque and Picasso's reasons for turning their back on traditional techniques? How did the cubists develop their new style?

The illusion of space

Since the Renaissance in the fifteenth century, European artists had aimed to create the illusion of three-dimensional space in their drawings and paintings. They wanted the experience of looking at a painting to be like looking through a window onto a real landscape, interior, person or object.

How do you make things look three-dimensional on a two-dimensional surface? Techniques such as linear perspective and tonal gradation are used. Perspective involves making things look bigger and clearer when they are close up, and smaller and less clear when they are further away. By doing this you can create the illusion of space. Artists also use tones (shadows) to create the illusion of three-dimensional objects. By gradually changing the darkness of a shadow, you can make something look solid.

These drawings by J.M.W Turner show how perspective and tone (or shadow) can be used to create the illusion of real, solid three-dimensional objects.

A new reality

The cubists however, felt that this type of illusion is trickery and does not give a real experience of the object.

Their aim was to show things as they really are, not just to show what they look like. They felt that they could give the viewer a more accurate understanding of an object, landscape or person by showing it from different angles or viewpoints, so they used flat geometric shapes to represent the different sides and angles of the objects. By doing this, they could suggest three-dimensional qualities and structure without using techniques such as perspective and shading.

This breaking down of the real world into flat geometric shapes also emphasized the two-dimensional flatness of the canvas. This suited the cubists' belief that a painting should not pretend to be like a window onto a realistic scene but as a flat surface it should behave like one.

Look at this painting by Georges Braque of a glass on a table. Can you spot the techniques he has used to emphasize the flatness of the picture, but at the same time, made the objects look solid?

The phases of cubism: Analytical vs synthetic

Cubism can be split into two distinct phases. The first phase, analytical cubism, is considered to have run until around 1912. It looks more austere or serious. Objects are split into lots of flat shapes representing the views of them from different angles, and muted colours and darker tones or shades are used. The second phase, synthetic cubism, involves simpler shapes and brighter colours (and looks more light-hearted and fun!)

Practical activities

Use these activity suggestions to explore ideas and create a cubist masterpiece updated for the twenty-first century.

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In around 1907 two artists living in Paris called Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque developed a revolutionary new style of painting which transformed everyday objects, landscapes, and people into geometric shapes.

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Analysis of the Golden Proportion of Birth of Venus

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Analysis of the Golden Proportion of Birth of Venus

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Great Youtube tutorial resource for acrylic paint and collage and layering

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Great Youtube tutorial resource for acrylic paint and collage and layering

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Louis Bourgeois Symbolic signifcance behind her work-self portraits

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Louis Bourgeois Symbolic signifcance behind her work-self portraits

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Watch back: Frances Morris, Director of Tate Modern talks about Louise Bourgeois in her Uniqlo Ten Minute Art Talk.

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Hieronymous Bosch Garden of Earthly Delight detail look at painting

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Henry Moore's sculptures are lumpy and bumpy and sometimes have holes right through them. Some look like people, others look like rocks or other objects that you might see in a landscape. Discover where he got his ideas from and how he developed the shapes for his sculptures

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Short video-beautiful layered portraits with cultural references. Great for referencing two different places or cultures together in one artwork

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Art 21 Artists list and info on them

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Discover the artists of the latest season of Art in the Twenty-First Century

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We discuss Picasso's great image of Guernica with help from a Subscriber, Andy Hess. Check me out on Patreon, a voluntary online subscription service: https://www.patreon.com/AmorSciendi Script written by James Earle, Andy Hess, and Carrie Clark Edited by James Earle and Hannah Baker Music provided by JinglePunks The Raft of Medusa is by Gericault, not Delacroix.

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The meaning of art and how an artist can make a change. We should always be looking to make our work meaningful, FUNCTION & MEANING

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Ai Weiwei in conversation with Tim Marlow: Part 2

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Subscribe to our channel to receive future episodes in this series. Ai Weiwei's monumental work 'Straight' will be the heaviest sculpture ever shown at the Royal Academy when it is installed for the artist's major exhibition in September 2015. The work is made from straightened steel reinforcing bars, salvaged from the ruins of the 2008 Sichuan earthquake.

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Great for media exploration oil paint

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How to paint like Willem de Kooning | IN THE STUDIO

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Learn how to paint like Willem de Kooning, one of the key artists of the postwar Abstract Expressionist style, also referred to as "action painting," with IN THE STUDIO instructor Corey D'Augustine. Explore the techniques of other New York School painters like Kusama, Rothko, and Pollock in MoMA's new free, online course, "In the Studio: Postwar Abstract Painting."

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A SHORT VIDEO EXPLAINING PERSONAL AND CULTURAL SYMBOLISM

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Pablo Picasso's The Three Dancers | TateShots | Tate

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3 MINUTE VIDEO OF ARTIST DISCUSSING THIS WORK. GREAT FOR CURATORIAL STUDIES AS ITS JUXTAPOSED WITH FRANCIS BACONS WORK

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TATESHOTS

In 1998 I had a complete, absolute breakdown, and I spent four days in bed; I was asleep and semi-unconscious. When I eventually did get out of bed, I had some water, went back, looked at the bedroom and couldn't believe what I could see; this absolute mess and decay of my life, and then I saw the bed out of that context of this tiny, tiny, bedroom, and I saw it in just like a big, white space. I realised that I had to move the bed and everything into the gallery space.

I was nominated for the Turner Prize in 1999 and in all honesty I never believed all the fuss and everything that would be caused about it; I had no idea. I think in the 1990s British art was making such a huge impression on people and all the tabloids were actually genuinely interested in it, regardless of how they set it up, and so that made the public interested in it, and I think the bed captured people's imagination; it was a good thing for zeitgeist of the time.

For me it was important to bring it back to Tate Britain, but I'd like it to be shown in a different context at Tate Britain, so I wanted it to be shown historically. I chose Francis Bacon because his life was kind of pretty chaotic and he just did whatever he wanted to do, drank whatever he wanted to drink, slept with whoever he wanted to sleep with; he was a maverick within society.

The paintings that I've chosen like these big, undulating roles of flesh and these things turning and these folds and everything, and it's much the same as the bed; the bed is folding, the bed is turning, the bed is moving. Francis Bacon's paintings aren't static, they've got total movement and so has the bed.

The reason why the drawings are here is because I wanted something which I'm making right now to accompany the bed, and the drawings are a donation to the Tate because I wanted people to be able to understand how the Tate still relates to what I'm doing now; there's this chaos, there's this body, there's this movement. The person in those drawings could've just walked out of that bed and that also relates to Bacon as well.

When I'm installing the bed it's kind of really sad and very depressing because I'm actually going into a time capsule of my past. All of the things that are round the bed no longer relate to my life at all, but I've got to say I'd be really stupid to be unhappy about this moment. Bringing it back to the Tate, Tate Britain, and showing it with paintings of my choice, I couldn't be happier about that; it's just brilliant.

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TATESHOTS In 1998 I had a complete, absolute breakdown, and I spent four days in bed; I was asleep and semi-unconscious.

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The Art Assignment Channel on Youtube

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What is Expressionism? Art Movements & Styles

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What is it about?

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Girl in Red goes to the origins of a legendary emoji with Munch

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Grimes takes the plunge down Bruegel’s darkest dreams

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This Youtube Channel has lots of great biographical art video's

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This Youtube Channel has lots of great biographical art video's

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Several Circles is comprised of two loved up art professionals (and their cat, Jimmy) living and working in New York. Here, we tell the stories of extraordin...

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Young Portrait artist Isabella Cotier. 3 minutes

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Young Portrait artist Isabella Cotier. 3 minutes

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oil pastel, bright color and gestural line drawings about everyday occurances.

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In the studio with artist Isabella Cotier | House & Garden

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6 minutes

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Takashi Murakami on Jellyfish Eyes, Nuclear Monsters, and Artistic Influences

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Abstract Portraits

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Intersting Sculptor-lots of resin used.
One work could be compared to Garden of Earthly Delights work bu HB.( 7 minutes long)

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A journey through the mind of an artist | Dustin Yellin

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Great drawing/mixed media artist

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7 minutes

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Yayoi Kusama – Obsessed with Polka Dots | Tate

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Good for creating works with more than one story in the compostion.

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Artist David Salle – 'Good Painting Has Immediate Impact' | TateShots

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All about Yinke Shonibare's life and influences

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All about Yinke Shonibare's life and influences

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3 minutes

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Becoming an Artist: Yinka Shonibare | Tate Kids

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7 minutes (fairytales, narrative, and pastels/mixed media work)