Cubism: Cathy Wong talks on Braque's Violin and Pitcher, 1910.

Title: Violin and pitcher

Year: 1910

Artist: Georges Braque
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 117 x 73.5 cm

In the early 20^th century, Georges Braque, one of the pioneers, created a highly influential art style, which is with geometric forms and abstracted works "cubes”, called Cubism. Braque said that as soon as “people started to define Cubism, to establish limits and principles, I got the hell out”. Therefore, he produced Violin and pitcher to acknowledge the artifice of Cubism.

Violin and pitcher is definitely related to Cubism, the early period of Cubism style, especially fits into analytic Cubism. The feature of this style is based on the analytical dissection of objects in space, breaking them down into component parts as seen from multiple viewpoints. These fragments would assemble into an interlocking plane to create a more complete picture with reduced color and a strong linear framework. This artwork is fit into those features as analysis as below.     

First, at first glance, the picture is hard to find a “real” still life clearly. The only thing can realize is many geometric shapes on a flat, 2D surface. However, the violin is easy to see in an interlocking plane, compared to some other Cubist works. The strings and body of a violin in this picture is the most stand out part. As Bolton (2000, p.11) stated that, it is “disjointed, as though it has been broken and rearranged, or viewed through rippled glass”. This artwork is use of multiple viewpoints. Then, the next still life in this picture is the pitcher. The pitcher is less obvious, but it is above of and to the left of the violin, which it shows a marked C-shape on the upper lip. It blends into the background and the space around it is as important as itself. The whole picture is full with merging everything together. And it fits into the feature of Cubism, use of space and from multiple viewpoints.

As Cubists abandoned traditional single-point perspective, instead subjects were presented from various viewpoints simultaneously. This broke the “rules” of art that had been followed since the Renaissance. Although Cubism is sometimes regarded as being a move away from reality, it was in fact an attempt to present more reality, showing different sides or facets, as if you were walking around an object. As the above mentioned, this artwork fulfilled some main feature of Cubism.

Second, the color of this picture is limited. Braque only used earth color, like brown, greens, and warm grey, which is the natural colors found in dirt, moss, trees and rocks, to finish the whole picture. As the color is limited, the conventional way for making shadow also have to abandon instead of using chiaroscuro shading and strong linear framework to create 3D on a flat. In the picture, there are full with strong lines, which seems to be irregular and most of them are straight lines rather than a curve, except some key feature of the still life, for instance, the shape of the violin. For the background, it also paints with the straight linear framework. Those angular shapes merge together and blur in the whole picture in a confusing way. Therefore, this work is fit into Cubism.

Third, Cubists believed that paintings should create an illusion of reality and tried to create it of showing an object as if in real or 3D space, which did as well as in this work. At the top of the composition of this work, an illusionistic ‘nail’ was appeared and hammered into the wall. There is nothing appears to hang on the nail, but the whole pyramidal landslide of objects which constitute the still life below it. It is trompe l’oeil (an eye-fooling game), which destined to give us a more profound sense of illusion, not of things seen but of things imagined , and it also heightens our sense of painted illusion by placing the nail close to the edge of the composition. It makes an illusion that the nail is not in the same space as the pitcher and violin. The nail seems to be in our space as the color of the nail is darker than anything in the picture, even the violin and pitcher. So, it makes an illusion of reality that the nail is closer to us than the pitcher and violin and creates a 3D space. Cox (2000, p.232) explained that “It disrupts the new spatial illusions of Cubism, and seems to imply that the whole picture is after all a mere surface, a strange or even silly contrivance with no more depth than a piece of paper pinned to a wall.” However, it may be just as counterfeit as the illusionism of Cubism since the nail is no more real than the rest. Such signs, the nail, import ready-made cultural symbols into otherwise illusionistic environments. It juxtaposed a traditional form of illusion with an alternative Cubist one. To create a higher conceptual realism, the ‘signs’ is a new language and representation of art. This artwork has those special features of Cubism.   

This work interests me by its color, representation and the style. The paintings from the Renaissance used to be very colorful and attractive, at least it is not use limited color to paint it, even though in others cubist’s work, for example, Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, which is also in bright color. However, this artwork is used the earth tone to finish, only few colors for painting. So, it is hard to paint an object for more reality as without the traditional way to create the space and shadow in a flat canvas, but chiaroscuro shading.

Also, the use of space is also strange to me. Its representation is used the whole picture with all broken up angular planes and surfaces. It is hard to distinguish the background and the still life object as all are interlocking planes. Although Braque has many painting about musical instruments and vessels, it still has no sense of how to form such a certain style of cubism. Even the still life is the same, the composition would be different. And the real background and objects would not be realized as everything is merging together.

Besides, its own style is very stand out and unique at that period. Braque tried to approach a new language of art, Cubist sign language, which consisted of a deliberately limited vocabulary: lines, broken circles, stippled chiaroscuro shading and austere sepia coloration. The whole composition was sometimes held together by a large pyramid or a parallax weaving together of broad planes. (Cox, 2000) Also, it broke the ‘rule’ of one single perspective for painting. It tried to look like more reality by painting in several viewpoints or in different time to paint. Compared to other art movement, it is more recognizable for its style.  

All in all, Violin and pitcher fits into Cubism, especially in analytical Cubism, regarding its composition, space, color tone, viewpoint and such sign, which represent the Cubism style.

Questions:

1.     As Cubism is in fact an attempt to be more reality, can it be called post-realism? Is it a way to show the difference between photography and art?

2.     Why Braque had to limit the color into earth tone? For reality or not?     

Reference:

Cox, Neil. Cubism. London: Phaidon Press Limited, 2000.

Antliff, Mark and Leighten, Patricia. Cubism and Culture. London: Thames & Hudson Limited, 2001.

Bolton, Linda. Art revolutions: cubism. London: Belitha Press Limited, 2000.

Dickins, Rosie. The Usborne Introduction to Modern Art. EDC Pub, 2005. 

Adams, L. S.  Art Across Time: V, 2002.