English Section - Persian Cultural Center

Pablo Picasso, Still Life
with Chair-caning, 1912.
Synthetic Cubism and Collage:
Synthetic Cubism was the second main style within
Cubism. It was developed mainly by Picasso, Braque,
and Juan Gris between 1912 and 1914. Synthetic Cubism
synthesizes the object to
its essential structure by
using collage technique.
Strong colors are also
used. Some historians
consider Analytical
Cubism and Synthetic
Cubism (from 1907 to
1914) the “pure forms”
of Cubism. Of course
the later developments
in cubism and other
modern movements of the
Twentieth Century greatly
shows influences of pure
Cubism.
Cubism introduced collage
to the fine arts. The
word collage is derived
from the French word
“coller” (to glue), first
coined by Braque and
Picasso. Collage is an
assemblage technique that
employs different textures
and surfaces, such as
colored paper, cardboard,
newspaper cutouts, fabric,
etc., along with paint and
other material to create an
image. Picasso’s Still Life
with Chair-caning (1912)
Juan Gris, Still Life
with Fruit Dish and
Mandolin, 1919.
and Braque’s Mandolin (1914) are good examples
of collage technique. In his work, Picasso uses an
oval canvas and cloth to form a chair. He uses rope
to frame the picture and the large painted letters that
read “JOU” are cut out from a newspaper entitled “Le
Journal.” The lettering also is a play on other French
words, “jeu” (game) and “jouer” (to play.) Braque’s
Mandolin uses different cardboard and newspaper,
based on white paper with pencil drawing.
Cubism freed painters from the two-dimensionality
of a flat surface. The game here was to break free of
conventional representations. Cubism has grown out
of the ambivalence between exact representation of
an object and the abstraction that was about to take
over Modern art. Cubism dissolves an object to its
component parts where a suggestion of the object
(a guitar or a figure or a coffee table) sparkles. It is
another view of reality which requires the viewer’s
willingness to participate in its discovery. About
Cubism Picasso said, “It is not a reality you can take
in your hand. It’s more like a perfume, the scent is
everywhere but you don’t quite know where it comes
from.”
It is important to note that the focus of Cubism is not
“subject” and “subject matter,” but “object.” This new
focus is an important element in Modern art. Subject
matter is no longer important; instead, the manner,
the technique, and the form in which an object is
being depicted became important in the Modern art
movements of the Twentieth Century.
No. 128/ July-August 2010 19