Cubism And The Trompe Loeil Tradition

The age-old tradition of pictorial illusionism known as trompe l’oeil (“deceive the eye”) employs visual tricks that confound the viewer’s perception of reality and fiction, truth and falsehood. This radically new take on Cubism shows how Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Juan Gris both parodied and paid homage to classic trompe l’oeil themes and motifs. The authors connect Cubist works to trompe l’oeil specialists of earlier centuries by juxtaposing more than one hundred Cubist paintings, drawings, and collages with related compositions by old masters. The informed and engaging texts trace the changing status of trompe l’oeil over the centuries, reveal Braque’s training in artisanal trompe l’oeil techniques as an integral part of his Cubist practice, examine the material used in Gris’s collages, and discuss the previously unstudied trompe l’oeil iconography within Cubist still lifes.

Brilliantly clarifies the language of Cubism & offers a penetrating analysis of its role in the creation of the major pictorial & sculptural styles of our time.

This beautifully illustrated volume tells the story of Cubism through twenty-two essays that explore the most significant private holding of Cubist art in the world today, the Leonard A. Lauder Collection, now a promised gift to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The eighty works featured in this volume—by Georges Braque, Juan Gris, Fernand Léger, and Pablo Picasso‐are among the most important and visually arresting in the movement’s history. These masterpieces, critical to the development of Cubism, include such groundbreaking paintings as Braque’s Trees at L’Estaque, considered one of the very first Cubist pictures; Picasso’s Still Life with Fan: “L’Indépendant,” one of the first to introduce typography; Gris’s noirish, uncanny The Man at the Café, one of his most celebrated collages; and Léger’s uniquely ambitious Composition (The Typographer). Written by renowned experts on this subject, the essays trace the evolution of Cubism from its origins in the still lifes, portraits, and collages of Braque and Picasso through the precisely delineated compositions by Gris that prefigure the Synthetic Cubism of the war years to Léger’s distinctive intersections of spherical, cylindrical, and cubic forms that evoke the syncopated rhythms of modern life. Also included are a fascinating interview in which Leonard Lauder discusses his approach to collecting, an investigative essay on the information gleaned from the backs of the works themselves, and an authoritative catalogue that further establishes the lives of these magnificent objects. A publication to place alongside the great histories of Modernism, this comprehensive book will stand as the resource for understanding Cubism for many years to come. -

The invention of collage by Picasso and Braque in 1912 proved to be a dramatic turning point in the development of Cubism and Futurism and ultimately one of the most significant innovations in twentieth-century art. Collage has traditionally been viewed as a new expression of modernism, one allied with modernism's search for purity of means, anti-illusionism, unity, and autonomy of form. This book - the first comprehensive study of collage and its relation to modernism - challenges this view. Christine Poggi argues that collage did not become a new language of modernism but a new language with which to critique modernism. She focuses on the ways Cubist collage - and the Futurist multimedia work that was inspired by it - undermined prevailing notions of material and stylistic unity, subverted the role of the frame and pictorial ground, and brought the languages of high and low culture into a new relationship of exchange.

This catalogue, published annually by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, announces its publications for that year. It also features notable backlist titles and provide a complete list of books available in print at the time of publication.

Juan Gris (1887-1927) was central to the development of Cubism in the early 20th century. Though the writer and art collector Gertrude Stein considered him a "perfect painter," Gris's pivotal role within the movement has often been overshadowed. Cubism in Color: The Still Lifes of Juan Gris reveals the virtuosic range of the artist's short yet prolific career, illuminating his boundary-pushing contributions to Cubism. As a thorough examination of Gris's still lifes, Cubism in Color provides an important reassessment of this underappreciated artist, reestablishing his position as a modernist master. This fully illustrated volume traces the evolution of Gris's aesthetic and approach to still life through a selection of key works. It includes original essays by leading scholars in the field, offering new insights on Gris's elusive artistic process, the history of collecting his work in the United States and his native Spain, and his artistic legacy within modern and contemporary Latin American art.

Cubism was the most influential artistic movement of the 20th century, yet just what cubism was, or stood for, is still in dispute. This book offers a way beyond this confusion through a narrative of cubism's beginnings, consolidation and dissemination.

In 1910, Pablo Picasso began a series of 11 decorative paintings intended for the Brooklyn residence of American artist, collector, and critic Hamilton Easter Field. This publication is the first in-depth examination of this commission which, despite never being completed, offers new insights into a little-known chapter in Picasso’s art that coincided with a critical moment in the development of Cubism. Based on new research, including letters and archival material from both Picasso and Field, this book shows how the unrealized commission challenged Picasso to move beyond easel painting and adapt Cubist forms to an immersive aesthetic experience. Authors investigate the progression of Cubist ideas and show how Picasso used Easter Field’s proposal as a place of experimentation by both subverting and paying homage to decorative painting traditions. Published to coincide with Celebration Picasso, marking the fiftieth anniversary of the artist’s death, this compact volume provides a compelling look at what might have been, as well as a fascinating portrait of art and patronage in the early twentieth century.

This catalogue, published annually by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, announces the Museum's publications for that year. It also features notable backlist titles and provide a complete list of books available in print at the time of publication.