Introduction
Cubism and Futurism has great impact in the United States. Both of them has played a significant role in evolving the the art of 19th and 20th century. Cubism is about object’s total concept, predominately the visual aspects of the objects, it present different ways for combining the objects with the aesthetic concerns and considerations. Futurism is, however, concerned with the visual sense of the movement, i.e., giving the sense of movement to photographs, drawings, sculptures and paintings.
Explanation
Cubism was, however, developed between 1908 and 1912 with the support of Picasso and Braque (Ehrlich, 2012). The Tribal Art of Cubism has exerted immediate influence on the country. Cubism’s major concept is that the object can just be captured by representing it simultaneously from several points of views. In early Cubism, paintings of Van Gao and Gauguin, the barbaric discovery, expressive power of the Negro sculpture and Picasso’s Bowl with Fruit, Violin, and Wineglass played a significant role. Further, Picasso and the followers of Cubism have not limited their research to the still life, and have never completely separated themselves from the sentiments and romantics. Their subject matter’s implications include studio, paraphernalia, the guitar, violin, mandolin, musical instruments and the older commedia linked with the instruments such as Columbine, Pierrot and Columbine. Furthermore, irrespective of the non-rational and emotional elements in cubist painting, its rational motivational elements still holds great importance. It comprises of the analytical concepts of many planes of a single object to present its simultaneous and synthetic view.
Figure 1: Pablo Picasso’s Bowl with Fruit, Violin, and Wineglass 1881-1973 (lucyalexander, 2010)
Moreover, by directing the synthetic view’s formal planes towards the spectators or observers, the frame of picture, however, no longer serve as the window that is leading observer’s eye in the distance, rather it acted as a boundary, which is surrounding a limited area of the panel or the canvas. Additionally, in the analytical phase of the Cubism, the paintings are monochromatic for avoiding any naturalistic and sumptuous reference to the color. Picasso and other leading Cubists then refused for taking the abstraction, and they climbed down from the pinnacle of their analytical experiments in order to have a more sensuous and attractive plateau. However, they left the last step of the geometrical abstraction to the others.
Then another movement, which is anti-rational derivative of Cubism known as Futurism started, which was introduced by the Italian Futurists in 1910. They rebelled against the static form of Cubists, and inspired by the machine dynamism, with which they moved forward in order to glorify, and for making central principle in their artistic philosophy. According to the Futurists the man should recognize the machine, and try to imitate its ruthless power. From the imitation, the Futurists tried to paint the movement by representing the abstract force lines and the schematic stages in the making of a moving object.
Additionally, in some cases they also wanted to involve the observer in the pictures by keeping into consideration the movement from the interior position. An example of this fact is Umberto Boccioni’s ‘Simultaneous Visions’, in which present impressions and memories are combined so that the observer can anticipate about the future (Coen, 1988). Hence, they denied formal perspective law of Cubists. The cubists have, however, struggled for eliminating the three dimensional space and brought the image closer to the eye of observer, though at some distance, yet the Futurists tried to stick the observer into the pictorial vortex.
Figure 2: Umberto Boccioni’s ‘Simultaneous Visions’ 1911-1912 (Kollnaum, 2010)
The major difference between the Cubism and futurism is that cubism is concerned with the static forms of the relationship, but Futurism deals with the kinetic forms (Cooper, 1971). Further, Cubists have not considered the worth of machines, but futurists have glorified the machine. In the cubist movement there is no obvious political implications and o involvement in the manifestoes. On the other hand, the Futurists have worshipped the energy for their own benefit, and their writings have pointed towards the Fascis’s power drunk ideology.
The Cubists have not favored any contact with the outside public, rather they preferred to shut themselves in their laboratories, but the Futurists have favored going out, meeting people in the market place, and they have even attempted to appeal the man in the trolley car. They were confrontational, vociferous and noisy. The Cubist artists and art were, however, intellectual, quiet, and cerebral. Today the pictures seen rigid and dry, this is because of the political partnership and the ideological appeal of the Futurism.
Furthermore, Futurism has considered the cultural and the social conditions on the mind of a human being. Futurists have developed interactions with different authorities and they have aligned themselves with the aggressive change and methods against the element of status quo. Contrary to the Cubism, the Futurism has showed in the galleries and exhibitions, and presented the artists in the front, rather them splitting them in different groups. This is, however, a movement that is concerned with the present day world; Futurism has taken up the collage innovation of Cubist, and then used it in their paintings from 1914 to onwards. Most of the collages, however, wanted to put the observer physically and visually in the middle of the art. The futurists, however, moved into the performance and they have written manifestos in an overstated way, but cubists have maintained their intellectual role, and legitimated their movement by connecting themselves with the novel scientific ideas, technology and classical art (Eysteinsson & Liska, 2007).
The art of futurist is optical and it is not intellectual, it is related to the moving objects, which ate dynamic, directional, fragmented and colorful. Futurist art is, however, optical and not intellectual, it is always related to things that move, that are directional and dynamic, colorful and fragmented.
The images are the indication of the fact that Cubism has focused on the flat, and two-dimensional surface of the plane of picture, challenged the traditional perspectives, modeling and the foreshortening. It has made the viewer to be aware of such techniques as the language of the artist. It has also rejected the claim that the art should imitate the nature as the illusionism of artist is surely imperfect.
The major challenge of the futurism is not to understand the painting rather recognizing the fact that the manifesto is all about the ideology and not about the art. However, to a larger extent, futurism is a social as well as an equally artistic movement. The Futurists were, however, fascinated by the representation of the problems of the modern experience, and for that they strived for evoking all the types of sensations in their paintings, and not only those that are visible to the human eye (Goldberg, 2011). The Futurist art brings, heat, noise, and metropolis smell to the mind.
The Futurists were also attracted by the new technology, particularly chrono-photography, which is a predecessor of the cinema and animation that permit the movement of the object across the frame’s sequence (Acton, 2004). However, this technology exerted significant influence on the approach of Futurists and showed movement in the painting, and encouraged the abstract art with the lively and rhythmic qualities, following which the art has changed in the 19th and 20th century.
Conclusion
In a nut shell, both the Cubism and Futurism hold a significant importance in the development of art in the United States. The major characteristics that can be seen in the art of Cubism are geometric color blocks of flat and splintered shape, they have the quest for finding novel concepts of painting as a display and arrangement of color and form on the two dimensional plane surface. Cubism has focused on reconstruction of objects, and created a battle between eyes and mind, i.e., what the eyes observe and what the mind consider and knows. The futurism has rejected old, and the dull object, focused on the motion, and promoted warfare and hasty speed of the modern technology and the urban life.
References
Acton, Mary. (2004). Learning to Look at Modern Art. Routledge, London
Cooper, Douglas. (1971). The Cubist Epoch. Phaidon Press Limited, Publishers, London
Ehrlich, Erika Gonzalez. (2012). Analytical and Synthetic Cubism: Picasso and Braque. School of Doctoral Studies (European Union) Journal, 163-170
Goldberg, Roselee. (2011). Performance Art: From Futurism to the Present. Thames & Hudson, Limited, Australia
Eysteinsson, Astraour., & Liska, Vivian. (2007). Modernism, Volume 1. John Benjamins Publishing, Amsterdam
Coen, Ester. (1988). Umberto Boccioni. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Lucyalexander. (2010). Cubism Part Tres. Retrieved from:
http://lucyalexander.wordpress.com/2010/01/02/cubism-part-tres/
Kollnaum, Pete. (2010). Simultaneous Vision: The Science Behind the Art. Retrieved from:
http://www.clspectrum.com/articleviewer.aspx?articleID=103981
