Cubism And War

This groundbreaking book provides a major reassessment of the history and significance of cubism. David Cottington examines the cubist movement and sets it within the complex political, economic, and cultural forces of pre-World War I France. Cubism, as a part of the Parisian artistic avant-garde, played an integral role in the turbulent Belle Epoque. The author focuses on cubisms relation to the particular discourses?of nationalism, aestheticism, gender, the social purpose of art?that gave meaning to the experience of modernity in Paris in the decade before the war. In Part I of the book, the author discusses the "cubist conjuncture," the years that followed the collapse of the Bloc des Gauches. The Bloc, more than a parliamentary alliance, represented an effort of collaboration between the liberal middle class and sectors of the working class led by Parisian intellectuals and artists (future cubists among them). In the wake of the Blocs failure, workers withdrew into trade unionism and artists into aesthetic avant-gardism. Cottington analyzes this consolidation of the artistic avant-garde, its relation to the expanding dealer-centered art market, and the dominant and counter discourses of the day. In Part II, he considers specific aspects of cubist art and the cubist movement?from the conservative modernism of the paintings of Le Fauconnier and Gleizes to the aestheticism of Picassos papiers-collés to the collective architectural and interior design project of the "cubist house." These examples and others, Cottington concludes, reveal cubism as a contradictory and unstable constellation of interests and practices, sometimes complicit with dominant social and political forces, sometimes opposed to them, but in every case shaped by them.

This book explores the work of those artists who attempted to keep alive the expanded possibilities opened up by Cubism in Paris between 1911 and 1914. This little community of artists refused to accept that recording the war or producing propaganda was their duty. Instead, they kept faith in their independence as individuals as this war of machines threatened to rob every front-line soldier of his humanity and to draw the globe into unprecedented conflict. The vast majority of fit young Frenchmen were mobilized, so those artists left behind in Paris were either foreign or too old or unfit for combat. Pablo Picasso, then known as the inventor of Cubism, remained a prominent figure, alongside his fellow Spaniards Juan Gris and María Blanchard, the Mexican Diego Rivera, the Italian Gino Severini, the Lithuanian sculptor Jacques Lipchitz and the French painters Georges Braque, Henri Laurens, Fernand Léger and Henri Matisse. One focus of this book is the sheer diversity of the work produced by these artists; another is the move made by most of them toward a more structured, architectural Cubism, especially from 1917, which could be taken as reparation against the destructive forces that seemed to have taken over the whole world.

This groundbreaking book provides a major reassessment of the history and significance of cubism. David Cottington examines the cubist movement and sets it within the complex political, economic, and cultural forces of pre-World War I France. Cubism, as a part of the Parisian artistic avant-garde, played an integral role in the turbulent Belle Epoque. The author focuses on cubisms relation to the particular discourses?of nationalism, aestheticism, gender, the social purpose of art?that gave meaning to the experience of modernity in Paris in the decade before the war. In Part I of the book, the author discusses the "cubist conjuncture," the years that followed the collapse of the Bloc des Gauches. The Bloc, more than a parliamentary alliance, represented an effort of collaboration between the liberal middle class and sectors of the working class led by Parisian intellectuals and artists (future cubists among them). In the wake of the Blocs failure, workers withdrew into trade unionism and artists into aesthetic avant-gardism. Cottington analyzes this consolidation of the artistic avant-garde, its relation to the expanding dealer-centered art market, and the dominant and counter discourses of the day. In Part II, he considers specific aspects of cubist art and the cubist movement?from the conservative modernism of the paintings of Le Fauconnier and Gleizes to the aestheticism of Picassos papiers-collés to the collective architectural and interior design project of the "cubist house." These examples and others, Cottington concludes, reveal cubism as a contradictory and unstable constellation of interests and practices, sometimes complicit with dominant social and political forces, sometimes opposed to them, but in every case shaped by them.

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. -

"Read this book if you want to understand me."—Pablo Picasso Conversations with Picasso offers a remarkable vision of both Picasso and the entire artistic and intellectual milieu of wartime Paris, a vision provided by the gifted photographer and prolific author who spent the early portion of the 1940s photographing Picasso's work. Brassaï carefully and affectionately records each of his meetings and appointments with the great artist, building along the way a work of remarkable depth, intimate perspective, and great importance to anyone who truly wishes to understand Picasso and his world.

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.

War, modernism, and the academic spirit -- Women in peril -- Mirroring masculinity -- Opposing visions -- Opening the floodgates -- To see or not to see -- Being there -- Behind the mask -- Monsters in our midst.

'Picasso: The Great War, Experimentation, and Change' examines the work that Pablo Picasso made in Paris during the tumultuous years of World War I. Focusing on Picasso's oeuvre from 1912 to 1924, when he utilised both Cubist and classical modes in his art, this fully illustrated catalogue highlights one of the most important periods in the history of modern art. Picasso's shifts in style became a means of not repeating, in his words, 'the same vision, the same technique, the same formula.' With that approach in mind, the book also includes the work of Picasso's peers and friends, artists who were also exploring themes relevant to the difficult times in which they lived. Published to accompany a major exhibition of the same name at the Barnes Foundation and the Columbus Museum of Art, this elegantly designed book is essential reading for all those interested in Picasso's work and the dramatic and innovative period of art history during the Great War. CONTRIBUTORS: Simonetta Fraquelli is an independent art historian and specialist in twentieth-century European art. She has curated numerous exhibitions, including Modigliani and his Models (Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2006), Chagall: Modern Master (Tate Liverpool, 2013), and Joan Miro: Wall, Frieze, Mural (Kunsthaus Zurich, 2015). Elizabeth Cowling is Professor Emeritus of History of Art and Honorary Fellow at Edinburgh University. Kenneth Silver is Professor of Art History and Director of Undergraduate Studies in the Institute of French Studies at New York University. Dominique H. Vasseur is the former Chief Curator and Curator of European Art at the Columbus Museum of Art, a position he held until his retirement in 2015. Ann Bremner is an arts writer and editor based in Columbus, Ohio. She earned BA and MA degrees in history of art from The Ohio State University. SELLING POINTS: * Examines Pablo Picasso's use of both Cubist and classical styles in his art during the tumultuous years of World War I * Accompanies a major exhibition opening at the Barnes Foundation (February 21 to May 9, * Features new scholarship from leading experts from around the world * Includes images and discussion of costumes by Picasso for the ballet Parade (1917), and photographs by Jean Cocteau showing the artist and friends in Paris (1916) 126 colour

As you'll find out in this guide to the fundamentals of cubism, there is more to the genre than its most famous proponent. Cubism -- often identified by flattened, geometric shapes, overlapping, simplified forms and fragmented spatial planes -- was quite possibly the most influential movement in 20th-century art. Featured artists: Pablo Picasso, Edmond Fortier, Paul Cizanne, George Braque, Henri Le Fauconnier, Jean Metzinger, Fernand Liger, Juan Gris, Albert Gleizes, Henri Laurens, Salvador Dalm, Brassao, Robert Delaunay, Raymond Duchamp-Villon... TASCHEN's Basic Art movement and genre series: includes a detailed introduction with approximately 30 photographs, and a timeline of the most important events (political, cultural, scientific, sporting, etc.) that took place during the time period. The body of the book contains a selection of the most important works of the epoch; each is presented on a 2-page spread with a full page image and, on the facing page, a description/interpretation.