During the early 1900’s a revolutionary new approach in art which involved the representation of reality emerged called cubism. It was elevated by artists such as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque who both used different perspectives and views of the subject into one image. This created fragmented images with an abstract tone. The name ‘cubism’ came from the geometric shapes seen in the work, it became one of the most influential styled in the 20th century. Artists aimed to show one object of figure for various view points at one time breaking away from linear perspective which had been around since the Renaissance Cubism in turn lead onto other art movements such as constructivism and neo-plasticism which also both incorporate sharp geometric shapes and outlines but in a more simple and abstract way.
This painting by Pablo Picasso named ‘girl with mandolin’ shows a fragmented version of reality. The neutral colour scheme helps us focus in on the shadows and helps the cube shapes stand out. Painting with a model in front of him his work manages to show one image from various angles all joined together to create an impossible image, one which could not be seen by the human eye.
I want to look into cubism and how the idea has ben used I photography by various artists. Photography and the editing software which is now available such as photoshop makes it a lot easier to create cubist art. Images can be cut up, re sized and re constructed creating a similar effect to those of the original cubist artists. Bellow i have collected work by various artist showing new interpretations of cubism, the first mixes mediums to create its effect. A face had been painted onto the side of the models face, one of the real eyes coincides with where the drawn on would be creating an interesting illusion reminding us of the ‘old hag and young women’ illusion which questions our perspective and view of different content. The middle image is by Nigel Tomm and show and crumpled and distorted magazine page. His work tackles the idea of perfection displayed in the media by models and celebrities and follows similar conventions to cubist art.