CUBISM & FUTURISM

Following on from Cézanne’s exploration of three-dimensional form, Cubism originated in about 1907 with Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Georges Braque (1882-1963) who wanted to fragment the viewer’s perception of reality into multiple viewpoints within the same picture. The Spaniard Juan Gris (1887-1927), who began to develop his own ‘Analytical Cubism’ in 1911, was convinced of the importance of Mathematics in painting by the artist and theorist Jean Metzinger (1883-1956). By 1913, Gris was shifting to what was known as called ‘Synthetic Cubism’, involving the extensive use of collage which is referenced in his drawing here of The Smoker. Around the same time in Italy, artists such as Umberto Boccioni (1882-1916) were developing Futurism which denounced the past and sought to capture the dynamism of the modern world.