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cubism

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expressionism

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- years leading up to WWI
- petit cubes (matisse)
- Braque and Picasso working together closely
- public recognition becomes prevalent after WWI (1914>)
- to the cubists, traditional form felt too coherent and literal depiction from only one viewpoint.
- Aimed to achieve the depth of the real world and the magnitude of the subjects' existence.
- a shifting point of view depicted simultaneously

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- restricted palette
- frontality
- suppression of depth
- definition of light sources
- oblique and linear form

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- cezanne - mt st. victoire:
- landscape painting cubist depiction of houses amongst trees and a field, with a mountain in the background
- attention drawn to the paint process itself, brushwork emphasises the construction of the painting more than the subject matter .
- simple tone shift between pale blues, yellows and greens limits field of depth, and simple horizontal lines is all that's needed to suggest a countryside landscape
- only oblique lines we really see are on the mountain and in the hilly area in the mid-foreground, emphasising the scale of the imagery. Where it lacks tonal definition, it makes up for with intentional oblique lines to create scale.

- braque - grand nu (big nude):
- depth becomes limited, everything moves to the front
- feminine figure painted in strong, square lines unconventional,
- portrait orientation of a lying figure, also unconventional, creates this unsettling mood of intrusion or freezing in an act (added to by the complementary colour palette and positioning of the face)
- vague facial features + blue object. is it a bed, mattress, rug, etc. creates anonymity, emphasis on the nude form more than anything else.

- picasso les demoiselles d'avignon:
- sculptural qualities of african mask juxtaposed with fluid movement of female bodies and watery aesthetic of the backdrop. duality of masculinity and femininity / hardness and softness
- even, frontal light source, allows the figures to "move" and "twist", kind of fidgety??. the oblique and vertical pull creates a suspended mood, and the dark sides draw the attention of the viewer up and down in the centre.

- picasso - portrait of wilhelm uhde:
- background penetrates the foreground, blending and merging of surrounding and subject, similar ambiguity to Braque's grand nu. Are we outside? are we inside? furniture or buildings or plants?
- our understanding of portraiture is challenged, this is not a window into a world to be speculated through, but a tangible object in itself to be investigated as its own surface
- scattered linework and minimal tone creates chaotic emptiness, Uhde appears almost ghostly and distant.

Picasso - l'Aficionado (the amateur)
- dull, dark tones, mix of warm and cool shades, feels very foreboding. Ambiguous lighting, ambiguous imagery: face?? top right, alley/hallway with stairs bottom, appears to be a candlestick, a sign saying "bullfighter"
- not sure what it's supposed to represent, or even present for that matter.
- almost purely horizontal and vertical lines, greating a scattered grid, like stacked bricks, interesting contrast between order and chaos with the overtones and undertones.

- juan gris - breakfast:
- collage or just collage effect??
- plays with representation of omission and inclusion through duality and tonal contrast (also linking back to process of cutting out of collage) process becomes tied with meaning and therefore part of the artwork.
- humility and luxury, homely yellows, cold blue background.
- collision of images and viewpoints, very standard as far as cubism goes.
- central/bottom focused, due to composition, colour restriction (brightest in the middle, warmest next, coldest last/outwards), uneven tonal contrasts (black shadows).

picasso - still life with chair caning:
- dual viewpoint reminds me of the way an author depicts one person's story through third-person language. we are looking on as an external entity, but this is still about picasso's experience, not his conversation with braque, or the lemons he's eating, but rather the way he  experiences it
- unconventional surface/shape. reminiscent of coffe/breakfast table: reflects idea that the presentation is part of the explorable work itself, not just something to inspect from afar. feels like a cafe table, not just a picture of a cafe table.
- sunlight coming through on the top right, everything casts large shadows, creates a soft, welcoming mood despite muddy green/brown colour palette.

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- cubism deals with duality and contrast, either intentionally or not
- not a fan of picasso's work
- not a fan of cubism in general
- cubism BORING :)))))

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German expressionism was an early twentieth century German art movement that emphasized the artist's inner feelings or ideas over replicating reality, and was characterised by simplified shapes, bright colours and gestural marks or brushstrokes.

German expressionism. There were two main groups of German expressionist artists: Die Brücke (the bridge) led by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) led by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc.

would appear that primitivism was not favoured by most of the rest of the expressionist movements.

overall primitivism has an uneasy sense of glorifying the apparent ineptitude or inferiority of "primitive" cultures and races?? it feels untidy and like it romanticises rather than celebrates and honours.

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Author: Jill Lloyd 1985
Not a primary source - at least not written of the time itself, but rather an analysis on the views of the past.

middle - end of WWI, germany still
Max Beckmann - german artist/printmaker, classified as an expressionist but rejected that term.

Ludwig Meidner - racist as shit german expressionist artist, condemned the primitivism movement's "fake naivety" and called "negroes", "christians of the middle ages", aztecs, and "bushmen" primitive and intellectually incapable. of the belief that people (artists) now are more intelligent than those of the past, but also implying that minority groups are also still inferior.

these viewpoints are somewhat expected: decade leading up to great depression and therefore propagated media after WWI that begins WWII.

what does "jagged, Africanized forms" mean??

jugendstil : youth style / art nouveau

pg 106: alluding to the idea that primitivism was an act of challenge or defiance to to the rest of expressionism for not being authentic enough.

karl ernst osthaus - german artist and architect; allowed the artists and general public alike to experience non-european art in a more organic / artistis / empathetic sense than before.

sounds like kandinsky changed his viewpoint on the idea of primitivism in expressionism, or at least went from merely accepting to favouring

I'm  confused about Lloyd's viewpoint or purpose with this last paragraph on 106. She critisizes (i think) Kandinsky's  attempt at pioneering the primitivism influence by disregarding the materialistic and drawing inspiration from the spiritual, but then applauds (???) Macke for doing the same thing.
is she just saying that Macke's Der Blaue Reiter did what Kandinsky couldn't?

Emil Nolde - member of  Der Brucke
Max Pechstein - member of Der Brucke
James ensor - belgian painter, influenced expressionism

pg 108 most interesting to me: clearly noticing the way primitivism is hypocritical: it mocks the jugenstil style for being materialistic and inauthentic, but forgets to draw inspiration from the "primitive" cultures its surrounded by even when immersed in them (following gaugin's ideas etc) - following the european artist's plan/path/formula rather than the actual culture it's studying.

overall I think that Primitivism tries to celebrate/honour ethnic minorities and their cultures, and the connection it has to art. But only a few artists actually achieve this from what I can tell? Nolde, for example seems to do the best job of being self-aware, and yet he still believes in his racial superiority??