Cubism

Georges Braque - Mandora

Cubism was a revolutionary approach to representing reality which was invented around 1907 by the artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The combined different views of subjects (usually objects or figures) together in the same picture, much like David Hockney does with his photo collages, and this results in paintings that appear fragmented and abstracted.

The name ‘cubism’ seems to have derived from a comment made by the critic Louis Vauxcelles who, on seeing some of Georges Braque's paintings exhibited in Paris in 1908, described them as reducing everything to ‘geometric outlines, to cubes’.

By breaking objects and figures down into distinct areas, the artists aimed to show different viewpoints at the same time and within the same space and so suggest their three dimensional form. In doing so they also emphasised the two-dimensional flatness of the canvas instead of creating the illusion of depth. 

Cubism has been described literally as breaking something down into cubes, which I have been doing with my experiments on my photographs, therefore my work could be seen as part of cubism. I have been taking photographs and cutting them up into lots of cubes and shapes, then sticking them back down in an unusual distorted order much like Braque's painting above 'Mandora' which shows an instrument which has been distorted and broken apart into small shapes as a painting.

I felt it necessary to research more on cubism as I feel it relates a lot to the style I have been working in for my paper cutting.

I think it will be easier to cut on a larger scale, I think it will be more successful also as I will be able to vary the sizes of the squares to create more of a distorted effect.

I decided to do a larger scale piece as I was thinking of maybe doing this as a possible final outcome for my personal investigation. I did this piece in black and white to focus on tone in the photograph to rather than colour, I feel as though there isn’t enough contrast between tone in this piece so it is very monotone and plain. It lacks any real contrast to draw the eye. I did the arrangement the same as I did in the coloured smaller piece.

I wanted to experiment further with the piece so I decided to cut some of the squares up into even smaller squares and then re-arrange them as well. I did this several times and took photographs so I could choose which one I felt worked best. I chose this one because I felt that it didn’t look too overly complicated and that the structure of the composition was balanced and worked nicely.

Whilst I feel that the piece doesn’t work in black and white as it is very bland, I think that the structure is very successful and I think that it would work very well in colour like the smaller piece so I am going to do this idea as my final piece increasing the size again to A2.

As I felt the first experiments of cutting squares and re-arranging them were successful and I really liked it I decided to try it again using a different photograph and different arrangement. This time I wanted to cut out larger squares, and cut up the whole picture rather than just a small section of it.

 

Here is the photograph cut up into squares before I re-arranged them. Already before they are re-arranged , I could tell it was going to be more successful. I think it is quite good as it is with slight gaps between the square and that is before it has be re-arranged to create a distorted effect. 

As my focus is figures for this one I decided to only re-arrange the squares in the section where the body is. In each column I kept one in the same place and the swapped around each pair. This meant that no two matching would be next to each other in the re-arranged columns. I decided not to try any other arrangements for this photograph because I felt that it looked really successful already as I had arranged it so I stuck it down onto cardboard as it was. I decided to stick this onto cardboard to see if the cardboard would wrinkle up like the paper does in my sketchbook when I stuck it down. I found that the cardboard did not wrinkle however it does curve slightly so I painted a layer of PVA glue on the other side to try and counteract this.

I decided again to do a spiral composition however this time I did it on a larger scale as I thought it would be easier to cut the circles out so there would be less of a white gap between them. I also decided to see how it looked on a larger scale as I was considering doing this style for a final piece. This composition works well because the spiral is spinning in the direction of the movement in the photograph which make it look like this movement is continuing in the piece.

I decided to experiment further with this piece by photocopying it and stitching into the spirals. Despite it taking a while to complete I really liked the end result. I like the symmetrical feel it has to it which is disrupted by the moving spirals, the spirals and the stitching almost contrast with the stitching giving you the false illusion of symmetry. On the opposite side of this piece and my other stitching compositions some very interesting abstract drawings of threads were produced.

I chose this one because I felt the positioning of the head worked best as it was still in the water and it was not too close to the main figure. I also felt that it gave the impression of movement by having the head in the top left higher than the main figure so it seems like they have moved to the main position they are now in.

As my layered photograph composition seemed to work so well I decided to try it again using a different photograph. It was harder to capture movement in this piece because the view of the body is very limited under the water so I just decided to layer the body parts that you can see in the photograph. I think that this composition is quite successful however compared to the original one I did I don’t think it is as successful perhaps because of the picture itself as the figure isn’t as clear therefore the intended effect doesn’t work as well. Perhaps it would have worked better if it was in colour like the original one that I did so that you could clearly see the body by the skin colour.

As I felt my first spiral cut-out composition was successful I decided to try it again using a different photograph and in black and white so that I could focus on tone as well as seeing how it worked in different photographs. I think that this piece is really successful, the pattern within the image seems to work really well and your focus is still on the figure in the composition with the illusion helping to highlight the figure more in the piece of work. I think that it is a really interesting composition to look at as your eyes follow the direction of the spiral round and round almost giving it an optical illusion effect.

I photocopied this composition and enlarged it to A3 to see what it would look like on a larger scale. I think it works well on a larger scale and I feel as though this technique would look rally effective on super large scale however I didn’t have the resources to print that large a scale but I would have liked to experiment further with a larger scale for some of my pieces of work. My plan is to maybe develop this further with stitching.

Going with the square style again I decided to this time try it by turning every other square upside down so that if you looked at it either way you would still be able to piece the photograph together and fill in the ‘gaps’ with your imagination where the squares are upside down. Whilst I liked the process of making this composition I felt that it was not very successful as it is quite hard to focus on and I personally feel that it disorientates you a little as it looks quite complex. This could be seen as successful as the purpose was to change the direction of the piece to almost give it an illusion however I’m not entirely happy with the way it has been put back together so next time I will try arranging the squares differently in the photograph I use.

I was inspired for this composition by my initial spiral circle piece, however I decided to cut square shapes instead and then move them around so every other one was upside down. I really liked this composition and felt that it was really successful, it almost looks like it has been combined with another photograph until you look closer. I like the lines created in the piece of work from the shapes I have cut out and I think that the even though the method was very simple it still has a sense of complexity and has a sense of illusion which makes it a really interesting composition.

I loved the contrast between the tones in this composition. I feel as though the technique of the collage is really effective and it highlights the contrast between the tones even more because of the structure and the shapes in the piece. I actually prefer this composition to the coloured version and I think it is more successful as because it really stands out and the symmetry gives it a nice balance.

Originally for this piece I was planning on doing a similar style to my take on David Hockney’s Polaroid series but using less and bigger squares. However once I cut out the three rows and separated them to check the spacing I realised I quite liked the piece just like that as it was simplistic but I felt it was also quite effective with the huge white gaps really emphasising line in the composition. I felt that this simple style actually made the photograph much more interesting to look at . I had decided to go for black and white so that I could see what it would look like if I focused just on tone rather than colour. 

I chose this one out of all of the experiments because I liked the impression of movement it gave with the different sections of the face at different levels. To me it felt like it looked like someone was swimming down and was bobbing there head under water then back up again in different locations. This theme of movement I felt was the right direction to go with for this composition as I had looked at movement of figures in some of my other pieces as well, especially considering on most of my photographs there is movement taking place anyway.

I was influenced by the artist Claire Pestaille for this composition and her Cinema II series. I decided I would first do it in colour as I had done all of my other pieces in colour as well. Similar to my composition using a photograph of my mum I cut up the photograph landscape into lots of small strips. I then decided to completely re-arrange them a few times and took photographs so that I could compare them and decide which one I felt worked best. I decided to just use one photograph for this piece rather than combining two photographs to see how it the composition would turn out and if it would be successful. I don’t think that the way I have structured this piece is successful because I feel it is quite busy and complex looking which kind of hurts you eyes when you look at it as you don’t know where to look so you don’t really focus on any of it, it just passes by.

I think that the monochrome version of this composition is more successful than the original coloured piece however I still don’t think that it is very successful. The composition is still very busy and the contrast between the image and the white paper underneath stands out a lot which distracts you from the actual components in the image. I feel as though the photograph and the figure are lost because of the strong contrasts in the piece. I have found that I am really starting to dislike this technique of collage as it doesn’t give the desired effect that I picture and they don’t appear to be coming out very successful.

I did some experiments, shuffling the squares around and taking pictures before deciding which one I felt was the most successful.

I chose this one out of all of the of the pieces I tried because I liked how the sections of the body were all still close to where the rest of the figure was in the photograph. I felt that it made more sense to do this so that you could still make out what it was supposed to be and for it not to be completely abstract.

This composition was inspired by the artist Claire Pestaille and her Crystalline project. I decided to just focus on a small section of the photograph to see the effect it would have on the image and also because I had never tried this style before so I just wanted to experiment with a small section first before doing more of the photograph. The issues I had with this piece was that the squares I cut out were so small that I had a really difficult time keeping them still whilst cutting which meant that they were not perfectly straight so there were some white gaps between them when I rearranged them. Before I stuck the squares down in this final position I re-arranged them a few times and took photos each time to compare and then decide which one I felt worked best.

Whilst I really like the contrast of tones on the figures in this composition I don’t like the effect the monochrome has had on the small cut up squares. I feel like you don’t get the full impact of this collage in black and white compared to colour. Whilst the figure does appear to stand out more I prefer the softer colours of blue that you can see in the original composition. You also miss out on the small details in the tiny squares that are visible when it is in colour.

Acetate Video

I had decided to do a version of an experiment using acetate so I photocopied the printed image onto a sheet of acetate. As i was leaving the printer, I placed the acetate over the original image to carry, I noticed that as I moved and the sheets slightly moved it was having this crazy effect on the two images so I decided to make a video of it. The movement of the acetate sheet makes the photograph look distorted and blurry, it also reminds me of a hologram.

In contrast to the symmetrical structure of the last piece I decided to take a different image and cut it up into different shaped fragments and to then re-arrange them slightly on the page leaving small gaps between them. I was inspired by cubism for this and also the film NOVA as in the film there was a Graphic Design Animation short film which showed a stained glass window which slowly broke up into many fragments that built up in front of the stained glass window making it 3D, I liked the idea of the fragments from this short film and decided to use this idea in one of my collage pieces to see if it would be successful. Hence why I decided to cut this image up into fragments. I think the piece is successful, I like how its not perfectly matched up and level so there is a slight shift between each piece however you can still clearly see how it is supposed to flow naturally. Line is a strong aspect of this piece and some of my other pieces with edges and angles. I left the figure alone to try and keep and emphasise him in the composition and keep him as the focus so that he wasn’t lost in all of the other fragments of the photograph. I put glue over the top of this piece to give it a shine when it dried to see how successful this looked.

There is an explosion of shapes in this piece and the lack of colour enables you to focus on the lines and shapes created in the composition. There is a lot of contrast between the shards of the photograph and the white background which makes the shards of the image really stand out. I personally think that the coloured version is more successful as the figure seems to stand out more and the details in the background are more visible as they don’t blend together.