Styles Influenced by Cubism

Week Eight:   The Effect of War on Art

Post Seven

Most styles of art that came out after Cubism were influenced by it in some way.  Of course, there are also two branches of Cubism:  Analytic and Synthetic.  An Analytic work such as Ma Jolie by Pablo Picasso is showing an analysis of the visual elements of a subject.  Each element is shown in a flattened, geometric area; all the important bits are there but they are not necessarily assembled in the original spots or, even if they are, different sides of the same object may be shown in a flattened juxtaposed space.  The subject often has a dissected look because thought has been given to portraying all surface elements and sometimes some internal elements as well.   In Synthetic Cubism images or objects are built up by collage and/or assemblage; they still give a geometric effect and the thoughtful assembly of the work is the main point of this art.  Picasso’s Mandolin and Clarinet is an example of this type of Cubism.

I see a lot of Cubist influence in Salvador Dali’s work The Phenomenon of Ecstasy.  This photo montage recalls Synthetic Cubism in the practice of collaging which is used here.   Though the separate images are not joined together to form the main image the repeating elements create a fairly coherent message.  An even stronger influence might come from Analytic Cubism.  Dali loses the geometric effect of Cubism in works such as Metamorphosis of Narcissus but the idea of “analysis” given a Freudian influence directs the analysis to the inside of the human mind instead of the surface of an object.  Dali is analyzing elements of his own dreams and portraying them on his canvas.  Whether he interpreted visual imagery in the same light as Freud I don’t know but Freud was extremely obsessed with repressed sexuality and most of Dali’s art contains the sensual or overtly sexual content that were then thought to be the main subject of dreams.  Dream subjects are interesting since they show fragments of the psyche and are a way of dissecting what is going on in the human brain much like analytical Cubism dissected outer appearance.  Max Ernst also gives us some insight into the workings of his own mind when he uses random surfaces to give him ideas to express in his version of Surrealism- this works something like the famous ink blot test.

The influence of Cubism on Dada is felt in analysis:  Dada analyzes society- and in Synthesis :  Dada artists use collage and assemblage to make the point that society and art have become ridiculous when compared to the destruction of World War I.  Ideas such as this freed Marcel Duchamp to express himself-not in beautiful, nonfunctional things made from his own hands-but in objects “readymade” and made nonfunctional in basic ways.  Analysis of an object means that the artist may see something in it beyond its mundane use which tickles a weak spot in our own perceptions and reveals something about it we haven’t noticed before.

Cubism also influenced architecture.  Many buildings from around the turn of the century and beyond have the geometrical effect of broken-up surfaces as if the function and form of what makes a building has been dissected.  Frank Lloyd Wright’s designs have a Cubist look, as if, instead of being flattened, they slice their way through the air in a series of planes and angles stacked one on top of the other like an analytical work built in 3-D.