Marcus Chen
Cubism, a revolutionary new approach to representing reality in art, was created by artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in Paris between 1907 and 1914. It emphasized the flat, two-dimensional surface of the picture plane, rejecting traditional techniques of perspective, foreshortening, modelling, and chiaroscuro. Cubist sculpture developed in parallel with Cubist painting, with Picasso's 'Head of a Woman (Fernande)' and 'Woman's Head' (both c. 1909-1910) considered the first true Cubist sculptures. These sculptures were three-dimensional counterparts to the analytical and faceted heads in Picasso's paintings, and they translated the Cubist interest in multiple perspectives and geometric form into a three-dimensional medium, integrating mass and its surrounding void.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Creators | Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque |
| Location | Paris |
| Years | 1907 to 1914 |
| Sculptures made of | Cardboard, paper, string, and wire |
| Cubist sculpture development | Developed in parallel with Cubist painting |
| Major Cubist sculptors | Alexander Archipenko, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, and Jacques Lipchitz |
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What You'll Learn
Cubist sculpture and painting's shared origins
Cubism, a highly influential visual arts style of the 20th century, was principally created by the artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in Paris between 1907 and 1914. It emphasised the flat, two-dimensional surface of the picture plane, rejecting traditional techniques of perspective, foreshortening, modelling, and chiaroscuro. The cubist painters wanted to emphasise the two-dimensionality of the canvas, so they reduced and fractured objects into geometric forms, which were then realigned within a shallow, relief-like space. Cubist painters were not bound to copying form, texture, colour, and space, and instead, they presented a new reality in paintings that depicted fragmented objects.
Cubist sculpture developed in parallel with Cubist painting, beginning in Paris around 1909 with its proto-Cubist phase and evolving through the early 1920s. Just as in Cubist painting, Cubist sculpture is rooted in Paul Cézanne's reduction of painted objects into component planes and geometric solids (cubes, spheres, cylinders, and cones). Presenting fragments and facets of objects that could be visually interpreted in different ways had the effect of 'revealing the structure' of the object. Cubist sculpture is the dynamic rendering of three-dimensional objects in the language of non-Euclidean geometry by shifting viewpoints of volume or mass in terms of spherical, flat, and hyperbolic surfaces.
Picasso translated the Cubist interest in multiple perspectives and geometric form into a three-dimensional medium. In the autumn of 1909, Picasso sculpted "Head of a Woman (Fernande)" with positive features depicted by negative space and vice versa. Art historian Douglas Cooper considered "Head of a Woman (Fernande)" to be the first true Cubist sculpture, a counterpart in three dimensions to many similar analytical and faceted heads in Picasso's paintings at the time. These positive/negative reversals were ambitiously exploited by Alexander Archipenko in 1912–13, for example in "Woman Walking". Joseph Csaky, after Archipenko, was the first sculptor in Paris to join the Cubists, with whom he exhibited from 1911 onwards.
In 1911, Braque created paper sculptures intended to clarify and enrich his pictorial idiom. In 1912, Picasso created the first Cubist collage, "Still Life With Chair Caning", while Braque preceded Picasso in the creation of Cubist cardboard sculptures and papiers collés. In 1913 and 1914, Braque and Picasso attempted to eliminate the use of colour as chiaroscuro, which had persisted in their paintings, by amalgamating painting and sculpture. They superimposed planes one on top of the other and illustrated the relationship directly, rather than having to demonstrate through shadows how one plane stands above or in front of another.
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Cubist sculpture's development in parallel with Cubist painting
Cubism was a highly influential visual arts style of the 20th century that was principally created by the artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in Paris between 1907 and 1914. It emphasised the flat, two-dimensional surface of the picture plane, rejecting traditional techniques of perspective, foreshortening, modelling, and chiaroscuro.
Cubist sculpture developed in parallel with Cubist painting, beginning in Paris around 1909 with its proto-Cubist phase and evolving through the early 1920s. Just as in Cubist painting, Cubist sculpture is rooted in Paul Cézanne's reduction of objects into component planes and geometric solids (cubes, spheres, cylinders, and cones). Presenting fragments and facets of objects that could be visually interpreted in different ways had the effect of 'revealing the structure' of the object.
Douglas Cooper, an art historian, wrote that "The first true Cubist sculpture was Picasso's impressive Woman's Head, modelled in 1909–10, a counterpart in three dimensions to many similar analytical and faceted heads in his paintings at the time." These positive/negative reversals were ambitiously exploited by Alexander Archipenko in 1912–13, for example in Woman Walking. Joseph Csaky, after Archipenko, was the first sculptor in Paris to join the Cubists, with whom he exhibited from 1911 onwards.
In 1912, Braque and Picasso introduced collage in the modernist sense to Cubism. Picasso is credited with creating the first Cubist collage, Still Life With Chair Caning, in May 1912, while Braque preceded Picasso in the creation of Cubist cardboard sculptures and papiers collés. In 1913 and 1914, Braque and Picasso attempted to eliminate the use of colour as chiaroscuro, which had persisted in their paintings, by amalgamating painting and sculpture. They superimposed planes on top of each other and illustrated the relationship directly, rather than having to demonstrate through shadows how one plane stands above or in front of another.
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Cubist sculpture's unique characteristics
Cubist sculpture, much like Cubist painting, is rooted in Paul Cézanne's reduction of painted objects into component planes and geometric solids (cubes, spheres, cylinders, and cones). It is also characterised by the use of multiple perspectives and viewpoints, with diverse elements superimposed, made transparent, or penetrating one another, while retaining their spatial relationships.
Cubist sculpture developed in parallel with Cubist painting. Pablo Picasso's Head of a Woman from 1909 is considered the first true Cubist sculpture. It depicts a woman's head with positive features depicted by negative space and vice versa. The sculpture originally done in clay and later cast in bronze, looks somewhat like a human head, but is angular with distorted features and spiked hair. Picasso takes this recognisable form and plays with it, exploring multiple viewpoints and angles.
Other pioneers of Cubist sculpture include Jacques Lipchitz, who worked with solid blocks of forms, often in low relief, where the figures are raised but not freestanding from the surface behind them. In his still lifes, objects are fractured and table edges may blur with sections of a wall or ceiling. French sculptor Raymond Duchamp-Villon is known for one of the masterpieces of Cubist sculpture, titled The Horse. Duchamp-Villon, who served in the French cavalry, used a horse's head as the basis for exploring power and motion, merging the machine age with a beast of burden and playing with space and mass. Russian-born sculptor Alexander Archipenko took the idea of multiple viewpoints further by using negative space to explore shifting areas of convex and concave forms, providing unusual views of the subject. In his Walking Woman, from 1912, he played with voids and solids.
Joseph Csaky, who was influenced by Gabon sculptures, also contributed substantially to the development of modern sculpture, both as an early pioneer in applying Cubist principles to sculpture and as a leading figure in nonrepresentational art of the 1920s. By 1914, significant Cubist sculpture had been done in Sweden (by sculptor Bror Hjorth), in Prague (by Gutfreund and his collaborator Emil Filla), and in Moscow (by Boris Korolev and Vera Mukhina).
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Cubist sculpture's evolution through the early 20th century
Cubism, an avant-garde art movement, originated in Paris in the early 20th century. It is primarily associated with painting, but it also had a profound influence on sculpture and architecture. The movement was pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, who are credited with creating a new visual language that revolutionised painting and the visual arts. This new style emphasised the flat, two-dimensional surface of the picture plane, rejecting traditional techniques of perspective, foreshortening, modelling, and chiaroscuro.
The Cubist style of sculpture developed in parallel with Cubist painting. Just as in Cubist painting, Cubist sculpture is rooted in Paul Cézanne's reduction of objects into component planes and geometric solids. In the autumn of 1909, Picasso sculpted "Head of a Woman (Fernande)", in which positive features were depicted by negative space and vice versa. This was followed by "Woman's Head", which is considered the first true Cubist sculpture. These positive/negative reversals were further explored by Alexander Archipenko in sculptures such as "Woman Walking" (1912-13). Joseph Csaky, after Archipenko, was the first sculptor in Paris to join the Cubists, exhibiting with them from 1911 onwards.
A major development in Cubist sculpture occurred in 1912 with Braque's creation of Cubist cardboard sculptures and papiers collés. These sculptures were composed of pieces of everyday paper artefacts such as newspaper, table cloth, wallpaper, and sheet music. This marked the first time that a sculpture had been assembled from disparate parts, integrating mass and its surrounding void. Picasso also contributed to this development with his use of non-art materials, challenging the distinction between high art and popular culture.
The ideas and techniques explored in Cubist sculpture had a significant influence on the development of modern architecture. Architects such as Le Corbusier adopted the Cubist aesthetic, incorporating simple geometric shapes and spatial ambiguity into the design of houses and other structures. The influence of Cubism can also be seen in later art movements such as Constructivism and Futurism, and Minimalism, demonstrating its lasting impact on the evolution of art in the 20th century.
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The influence of Cubist sculpture on other art movements
Cubist sculpture, just like Cubist painting, is rooted in Paul Cézanne's reduction of painted objects into component planes and geometric solids. It became a pervasive influence and contributed fundamentally to Constructivism and Futurism. For instance, Fernand Léger's work combines his various influences from Cubism and Futurism. The geometric forms of the figures indicate his Cubist sources, while his reliance on machine-like imagery is borrowed from Futurism.
Cubist sculpture also influenced the development of modern architecture from 1912 onwards. The major Cubist sculptors were Alexander Archipenko, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, and Jacques Lipchitz. The adoption of the Cubist aesthetic by the Swiss architect Le Corbusier is reflected in the shapes of the houses he designed during the 1920s. The leading Cubist architects were Pavel Janák, Josef Gočár, Vlastislav Hofman, Emil Králíček, and Josef Chochol. They worked mostly in Prague but also in other Bohemian towns. The influence of Cubism extended to other artistic fields, including literature. Gertrude Stein's writings, for example, employ repetition and repetitive phrases as building blocks in both passages and whole chapters.
Cubist sculpture also had far-reaching consequences for Dada and Surrealism, as well as for all artists pursuing abstraction in Germany, Holland, Italy, England, America, and Russia. Cubist sculpture, like Cubist painting, challenged the notion that art should imitate nature and traditional techniques of perspective, foreshortening, modelling, and chiaroscuro. Instead, it presented a new reality in sculptures that depicted radically fragmented objects. This was achieved by assembling sculptures from disparate parts, using non-art materials and integrating mass and its surrounding void.
Cubist sculpture, therefore, had a profound influence on 20th-century art, contributing to the development of new movements such as Constructivism, Futurism, Dada, Surrealism, and abstraction. It also influenced the fields of architecture and literature, with its emphasis on geometric forms, multiple perspectives, and the integration of mass and space.
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Frequently asked questions
Cubist sculpture is rooted in Paul Cézanne's reduction of objects into component planes and geometric solids (cubes, spheres, cylinders, and cones). It involves presenting fragments and facets of objects that can be visually interpreted in different ways, revealing the structure of the object. Cubist sculptors translated the Cubist interest in multiple perspectives and geometric form into a three-dimensional medium.
Cubist sculpture developed in parallel with Cubist painting, beginning in Paris around 1909 with its proto-Cubist phase and evolving through the early 1920s. Just as Cubist painters rejected traditional techniques of perspective and modelling, Cubist sculptors translated these ideas into three-dimensional works, often using non-traditional materials such as cardboard, paper, string, and wire.
The first true Cubist sculpture is considered to be Picasso's "Woman's Head", modelled in 1909-1910. Other early examples include Braque's paper sculptures from 1911, and Alexander Archipenko's ambitious explorations of positive/negative reversals in sculptures such as "Woman Walking" (1912-1913).
