Feature image: André Lhote (1885-1962), Les Rugbymen, circa 1917 (detail). © André Lhote, DACS 2023 via Christie's
Cubism
During the 20th century, specifically between 1907 and 1914, cubism was developed by legendary artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Barque. Since then, many artists have followed cubism, which we call abstract art today. Therefore, cubism was the beginning of abstract art. The first type of cubism Picasso and Braque created was Analytical Cubism. This cubism offered “an analysis of form” of art and was developed between 1910 and 1912. More specifically, Analytical Cubism “analyzed natural forms and reduced the forms into basic geometric parts on the two-dimensional picture plane.”The idea and goal behind cubism was focusing on the fragments of an image. Britannica says, “The Cubist style emphasized the flat, two-dimensional surface of the picture plane, rejecting the traditional techniques of perspective, foreshortening, modeling, and chiaroscuro and refuting time-honored theories that art should imitate nature.”
Cubism was a combination of avant-garde and abstract art that challenged viewers’ perspectives and used chiaroscuro lighting. Viewers must look long and hard at a painting to give a complete interpretation. They had to look beyond the cubes and look closer at the meaning behind the art. After all, no true cubist artist, like Picasso and Barque, tells their secrets at first glance. Below are four examples of cubism in art by both founders of cubism and a cubist artist. They illustrated their vision of cubism through objects and the nude body.
One of the first cubist paintings was by Georges Barque, who completed Bottles and Fishes in 1910. This oil on canvas painting is an example of Analytical Cubism. Barque offers an analysis of objects—bottles and fish—arranged in an abstract form. Looking at his ideas for bottles and fish, Baroque used various colors, such as brown, gray, and orchard, as his subjects. Through the colors and fragments of objects, he offers many “geometric facets and planes.”
Additionally, in 1910, Pablo Picasso painted a portrait of Ambrose Vollard. Interestingly, Ambrose Vollard was a real-life person whom Picasso knew personally. Vollard was a famous art dealer during the 20th century who worked with Picasso. Looking at Vollard’s portrait, cubism takes over entirely. Viewers can only recognize Vollard’s head in the portrait at first glance. According to pablopicasso.org, “Vollard's downcast eyes, apparently closed, the massive explosion of his bald head, multiplying itself up the painting like an egg being broken open, his bulbous nose and the dark triangle of his beard are the first things the eye latches on to. They are recognizable. At least that's the way your mind, through habit, composes the details into information.” Based on this exert through Analytical Cubism, Picasso offered an abundance of detailed shapes and fragments cultivating Vollard’s face. Picasso’s portrait is both recognizable and ambiguous.
Later in the 20th century, another cubist artist was known as Andre Lhote. He was a French artist known for having nude paintings of women. Currently, in my hometown of Jacksonville, Florida, the Cummer Museum is showcasing two pieces of Lhote’s work: Cubist Nude and Seated Nude. I had the pleasure of seeing both in person in May 2024. Miraculously, like Picasso and Braque's work, Lhote’s 1917 Cubist Nude, an oil on canvas painting, is an example of Analytic Cubism. Lhote heavily shapes out the nude women through geometrical images. The Cummer Museum wrote, “The subject, a powerful female nude, her hands held behind her back, has been transformed into a mosaic of refracted planes and subtle neutral colors.” Unlike Picasso and Baroque’s work, the Cubist Nude Lhote forces his viewers to focus on the nude women who are the subject. There’s no ambiguity about Lhote’s subject, and her position of having her arms behind her back reveals the cubist style within her body.
Subsequently, Lhote’s paintings have more artistic content in addition to Analytic Cubism. According to the Cummer Museum, Lhote incorporated Cubist aesthetic theory. The museum acknowledged how “Cubist aesthetic theory paid homage to the forces of change, speed, spatial relativity, and the machine, which were gathering momentum in Europe before World War I.” Cubist aesthetic theory consisted of speed, spatial order within a space, and machinery. Cubist aesthetic theory can be seen in Lhote’s 1918 Seated Nude. This is a pencil sketch revealing a woman’s nude body in a geometrical form. According to the Cummer Museum, “The strong contours, geometric shapes, and the female form are highlights of Cubism.” As a viewer, I could see the pencil outlines of the woman’s body from her arms, face, legs, face, and breasts. It’s imperative to recognize that Lhote chose a woman’s nude body to practice cubism rather than exposing women to nudity.
Cubism was popular during the 20th century. In the beginning, cubism appealed to Picasso and Barque for authenticity. Thus, this inspired other artists who followed after, such as Andre Lhote. As mentioned throughout this article, cubism forces viewers to spend time with an image, deciphering what the artist created. By using objects and the female form, the artists successfully focused on the shapes and geometric objects, allowing them to succeed in painting in the cubist style.
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