Rise of Cubism

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UNIVERSITY
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the rise of cubism
759.915
daniel-henry
kahnweller
UNIVERSITY
OF FLORIDA
LIBRARIES
Translated by
The Documents
of
Modern
Henry Aronson
Art: Director: Robert Motherwell
Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler
The
of
Wittenborn, Schultz,
Inc.,
New York
22,
N.Y.
Rise
Cubism
AKCH&
AUIEDAjjig
Publishers' Note:
The
publishers and the director of the series wish to express their
gratitude and indebtedness for aid
and advice
to the author, copyright holder of the original edition,

to the individuals
to
and
institutions
John Rewald, William
This
is
in 191 5
the
first
S.
mendoned
in the list of illustrations,
and
Lieberman, Curt Valentin, and Bernard Karpel.
translation into any language of the original
and published under the
title
"Der
German
Weg zum Kubismus"
text,
written
by Daniel Henry
(Munich, Delphin-Verlag, 1920).
Copyright, 1949, by Wittenborn, Schultz, Inc.

All rights reserved
under international and Pan-American copyright conventions.
Published by Wittenborn, Schultz, Inc., 38 East 57th Street,
New York
22,
N.Y.
Contents:
page
Note
iv
Publisher's
vi
Preliminary Notice by Robert Motherwell
via
ix
I
List of Illustrations
Writings by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler
The Rise of Cubism:
i.
The Essence of the New Painting. Lyricism of Form.

The Conflict between Representation and Structure
2.
The
3.
Cubism, the
Forerunners: Cezanne and Derain

First Stage:
The Problem of Form.
Picasso
and Braque
9
4.
Cubism, the Second Stage: The Piercing of the Closed
Form. The Problem of Color. Categories of Vision.

Picasso and Braque
17
5.
The
21
6.
New Possibilities:
Working Together
Picture as a Productive
End
in Itself.
Representation of
Leger
Movement
"
if-
Preliminary Notice
Cubism began
as
an
analysis, of the nature oj the aesthetic.
account of the cubists' experiments by a

a dealer in their wor\s, a
man who
man who was
The present
their friend
little
boo\
and advocate,
has reflected on their achievement
is
an
as well as
all his life.
Kahn-
weiler formulates their problem in the beginning of this boo\ in the sentence that reads,
'representation
and structure
solution that they
conflict.'
Written as early as 1915, this boot{
worked toward; tvhen
it
came
to be seen,
it
broke the
is
the story of the
bacl{, if
only tem-
porarily, of centuries of naturalistic representation. Since then the struggle to be free
nature has passed into other hands, and will pass in turn to
society
remains what
it is,
and man's insight
into
it
still
others
and himself
from
as long as modern
increases, the distance be-
tween the objects in the tvorld and an enlightened mind will lengthen. In accord with
analytical intent,
from
its
cubism started inamood of
indifference to the
has been inherited by
many
demands
objectivity.
of the
abstract artists
herent in the cubist enterprise
lies in
this derives its
famous
its
'purity,'
before an objective problem. This morality
and
pressionism, which asserts the dominance of the
From
architects;
it is
indirect opposition to ex-
above everything. Part of the beauty inthat for a time their minds were questioning and open
about the forms of painting, though they scarcely transformed at
all its
Doubtless they seized upon Cezanne too quickly, but they were eager to
subject-matter.
act,
and he pro-
vided one of the few precedents for a reconsideration of modern painting. They also listened
to poets tvho had been injluenced by Mallarme and the syMlbolÛ, notably Guillaume Apollinaire; they tal\ed,
vi
probably in a purely intuitive tvay, of modern science; and
all
the time
were struggling with the absolutes of painting. But from their free
in their studios they
bohemian
they had already rid their minds of history, middle-class society, religion. Es-
life
sential steps. Nevertheless the cubists' painting
houses,
it,
still life.
Sometime
and pierced the
naturalism.
Wording
does not
And
Man
it,
ttep ,' as
in
nudes,
trees,
Kahnweiler puts
which they
exist ed to
cubism snapped traditional
this step
thought and feeling
all
is
own
his
is
man, he
relative to
invention; every
artist's
problem
is
How
stupid from this point of view to pass one's time copying nature or
tvhat an invention is Mozart! T't^tgf' nn^lyrlc ^t.// invl^ nf gr^nt nhj^rtitiity
Braûe_and Picasso
when
but invents
with objects
filled
he great
stubbornness and objectivity , they stumbled
tuith great intelligence,
reflect the tvorld
to invent himself.
history.
With
call subjective process.
over the leading insight of the 20th century,^
't
them and the world
of oibjects reducing
'sl{in'
what we tvould notv
world was
in igog or igio Picass o toot{
ivere led directly to the subjective
waver
their insight did not
deeper sense than Manolo guessed luhen he
made
painting does
much
as
how
not certain
is
speakjng of the brief period
it
It is in
much
crude jo\e that Picasso's family would
if
he had descended as a cubist portrait.
as he invented cubism fit
to every true painter, of course
bac\ now, one
am
his
not have recognized him at the Barcelona station
Cubism invented Picasso
problem of inventing themselves.
to the
made him
r.
evealed himself
to
himself, as
unintelligible to others\ln loo\ing
completely the cubists possessed their insight.
It is
shoc\-
ing to read in this boo\ of their fears of being unintelligible, of their confusing the sudden appearance of their subjectivity with the appearances of the external world, as though one
would
lool{ like the other; it is
merely decorative
figurative painters.
shocking too that they were afraid that the
mistaken image Kahnweiler
But we must remember
Around igio-12,
that Kahniveiler
is
posing_ejsiices_ojjnafter_
and
spirit,
and they returned
to
made
them landscape and
is
stri/^mg
artist as
and
is
not the material structure
"/ ^"' a sen sitwe c'aUigraphy that/

which
into a oneness in
representation
During these years cubism approached
has to be spent in transcending
what he has learned from conventions.
abstract artists like to speak
s weeps up internal an d extern alworlds
impressionists
one ivho
is
in cubism's highest flights, tvhat
and most
life
he has been chosen in modern times by the
his initial inheritances. In the sense that
enemy, a middle-class person
might be
a sea of confusions everyone begins,
in tvhat
even genius, and for that matter often ends; everyone's
his special
tvork^
has of Mondrian and other non-
still
reality consists not oj_of-
^tructttrcr but-
tyf
relation f, jprocess.
ecstasy. Presently it lost its intuition of the mysterious,
Western construction like carpenters or masons. Corot, Courbet and the

,
the subject-matter of
still life,
modern
art secular.
and from the academic
The
cubists accepted
from
tradition the nude. These subjects the
cubists mildly transformed into their oivn intimate objects, bare
rooms
in place of the out-
doors, glasses, playing cards, labels, newspapers, musical instruments in place of fruit, and,
one supposes, their own

flict
girls in place of the
betiveen subjettivity
as Kahnweiler puts
could in the
resolved long
fttsed to give
it,
led
them slowly
interes^ts~-&f axt; this
enough
up
model
andthe objectjjolthe
to liberate
to
in a public studio.
tiiprld,
intrinsi c con-_
and representation,
abandon natural appearances as much as they
process constituted their dramatic conflict, which they
everyone after them, and then abandoned for they
their studio subjects.
Tender an d
to stand expressionist distortion, the cubists
came
to
lyricaL perhaps for the

.
re-
moment unable
invent a new. sign language with which
to refer to their familiar objects in the studio, signs tvhose
vii
But the
bettveen structure
meaning was
arbitrary, invented
>*'
and by
expressed; but
Cubism was
when cubism returned
later to its pleasure-giving objects,
When
have intended, as one says in French, nature morte.

litê
if
it
the cubists painted

.
what
to speal(^, not as history, but as evocative of
interest can be spolên of save
years the cubists painted as
be modern that Apollinaire
filled u'ith the optimistic desire to
nostalgia, with a sense of their certain decay.
language
relational logic or the
words or
definition, lil{e other symbolic structures:
of deaf-mutes.
became
filled
with
they
may
still life
us
/ say these things as all of
artists
have seen and guessed; nothing of
by indirection. This was just cubism's insight. For several
no truth
is
true that
is
not subtle.
Robert Motherwell,
New
Yor\, February 22, ig^g
List of Illustrations
(Dimensions given in inches, height precedes width)
Frontispiece
Picasso, Portrait of Kahnweiler.
1910,
oil,
39'/4
by 28%, collection Mrs.
Charles B. Goodspeed, Chicago.

Pagejri
Picasso, Etching. 1914.
Picasso,
Nude.
20
Picasso,
Two
23
Picasso,
Les Demoiselles
Art,
New
1910, pen
and ink drawing,
Nudes. 1906,
oil,
59% by 36%,
Braque, Nude. 1908,
24
Picasso,
oil,
Two Nudes
unknown.
private collection,
London.
96 by 92, Museum of Modern

P. Bliss Bequest.
d' Avignon. 1907, oil,
York, acquired through the
24
coll.
55% by
Lillie
40, coUectien
{Friendship). 1908,
Mme
Marie Cuttoli,
60 by 40,
oil,
Museum
Paris.
of
Modern
Western Art, Moscow.

25
Picasso, Oil-Mill, Horta. 1909, oil, 15
25
Braque,
New
26
Road near Estaque.
1908,
by
oil,
18, private collection, Paris.
23% by 19%, Museum
of
Modern
Art,
York.
Picasso,
Woman
with Mandolin. 1909,
oil,
25 by 21,
Museum
of
Modern
Western Art, Moscow.

26
27
Woman with Mandolin (Fanny

Roland Penrose, London.
Picasso,
lection
Braque,
Woman
P. Chrysler,
28
Jr.,
tvith
Tellier). 1910, oil, 39'/2
Mandolin. 1910-11,
oil,
36 by
by 29,
28'/2, collection
col-
Walter
Warrentown, Virginia.
Braque, The Portuguese Guitar Player. 1911,
oil,
46V4 by 28%, private
col-
lection, Paris.
29
Picasso, Guitar. 1912, construction in colored papers, 9'/2 inches high,
by the
30
owned
artist.
Braque, The Clarinet. 1913, pasted paper, facsimile wood grain and crayon
Amedee Ozenfant, New York.
drawing, 37 by 47, collection

30
Picasso,
by
vtii
Man
tvith
i8'/8, collection
a Violin. 1913, pasted paper and charcoal drawing,
Roland Penrose, London.
48%
Braque, The Concert. 1913, pasted paper, facsimile wood grain and charcoal
drawing, 36 by 46 '/2, collection Pablo Picasso, Paris.
30
Picasso, Glass, Pipe, Playing Card. 1914, painted construction in
31
inches diameter,
owned by
and pasted paper on canvas,

Walter C. Arensberg, Hollywood.
Picasso, Still Life. 1912-13, oil
32
lection
Braque, Oval
32
York,
Leger,
33
Two
Bernheim,
Leger,
33
Still Life.
gift of the
wood,
I'iVi
the artist.
1914,
oil,
36% by 25%, Museum
of
36'/4
by 25V2)
Modern
Art,
col-
New
Advisory Committee.
Pipe Smokers. 191
1,
51 by 38, former collection Georges
oil,
Paris.
Nudes
in the Forest. 1909-10, oil,
96 by 132, collection KroUer-Miiller
Foundation, Otterloo, Holland.

Leger,
34
New
Smoke
over Roofs. 1913, gouache,
Leger, The Card Party. 1916-17,
35
25'/4
by igVi, Buchholz Gallery,
York.
oil,
private collection.
Writings by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler

Compiled by Bernard Karpet, Librarian, Museum of Modern Art,
New
Yor\
1.
Der Kubismus. Die Weissen
2.
Die Schweizer Volksmalerei im XIX. Jahrhundert. Das Kunstblatt {Berlin)
Blatter (Zurich-Leipzig) v.3, no.9, p.209-222 Sept. 1916.

v. 2, no.7,
p.223-225 July 1918.
Vom
3.
Sehen und
vom
Bilden.
Die Weissen Blatter (Zurich-Leipzig)
v.6, no.7,
P-3^5~322
July 1919.
4.
Andre Derain. Das Kunstblatt
5.
Expressionismus.
6.
Merzmalerei. Das Kunstblatt (Berlin)
(Berlin) v.3, no.io, p.289-304 Oct. 1919.
Das Kunstblatt
(Berlin) v.3, no.ii, p.351

v.3, no. 11, p.351
7.
Das Wesen der Bildhauerei. Feuer (Weimar)
8.
Der
Nov .-Dec.
1919.
plates Leipzig,
Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1920.
Junge Kunst. Bd. 1 1 )
Andre Derain.
10.
v.i, no.2-3, p. 145-156
Kubismus. 55p. plus 36 plates Miinchen, Delphin-Verlag, 1920.

translation as: The rise of cubism, Neu> Yorl{, i()4g.
Maurice de Vlaminck. i6p. plus 32

(
1919.
1919.
Weg zum
Issued in
9.
Nov.
Nov.
i6p. plus 32 plates Leipzig, Klinkhardt
& Biermann,
1920. (Junge Kunst.
Bd.15).
Also published in Dutch translation by Collection N.K., .imsterdam, 1924. Originally

issued in
Das
Kun'stblatt v.^, igig,
and
in
Jahrbuch der Jungen Kunst
v.i,
P.9S-95
jg20.
11. \\fcT\isiaXX.en.
Die Freude (Oberfranên)
v.i,
p.153-154 1920.
12.
Absichten des Kubismus. Das Kunstblatt (Berlin)
13.
Die Grenzen der Kunstgeschichte. Monatshefte

part
14.
I,
Feb. 1920.
Kunstwissenschaft (Leipzig)
p.91-97 Apr. 1920.
Andre Derain. Der Cicerone (Leipzig)
ix
v.4, no.2, p.6i
fiir
v.12, no. 8, p-3i5-3i7
Apr. 1920.
v. 13,
15.
Der Purismus. Der Cicerone {Leipzig)
v. 12, no.p,
Also published in Jahrbuch der Jungen Kunst,

16.
Fernand Leger. Der Cicerone (Leipzig)
v. 12,
p.364
May
1920.
v.i, p.i^<) 1^20.
no.19, p.699-702 Oct. 1920.
Also published in Jahrbuch der Jungen Kunst, p.ôiô^ 1^20.
und Maximen. Das Kunstblatt v.9,
i6a. Ingres: Ideen
no.i, p.18-24 Jan. 1925.
"Zusammengestellt von Daniel Henry."

1
6b. Maurice de
Vlaminck. In Flechtheim, Alfred, Gallery. Maurice de Vlaminck, mit Bei-
und Gedichten
tragen von Daniel Henry, E. Teriade,
des Malers, p.5-6 Berlin,
Werk-
kunst Verlag, 1926 (Veroffendichungen des Kunstarchivs. Nr.20.)
Text dated igig, exhibition held Nov. 1^26.

17.
Der Tod des Juan
17a. Das abenteuerliche
Oris.
Der Ouerschnitt
{Berlin) v.7, no.7, p. 558 July 1927.
Leben des Manuel Martinez Hugue, genannt Manolo. In Flechtheim,
Alfred, Gallery. Manolo. p.3-8 Berlin, 1929.
Also published in Der Ouer'schnitt

18.
v.g, no.8,
p.590-^gi
ic)2g.
Juan Gris. i6p. plus 32 plates Leipzig, Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1929. (Junge Kunst
Bd.55).
'
.
Extracts also published in Cahiers d'Art, v.8, /pjj.

iSa.Elie Lascaux. In Flechtheim, Alfred, Gallery. Elie Lascaux [exhibition catalog] p.8 Berlin, Diisseldorf, 1930.
19.
Juan Gris. In
Ziirich.
Kunsthaus. Juan Gris-Fernand Leger. p.24-27 Paris, Cahiers
d'Art, 1933.
Special edition issued for exhibitions of April

20. Introduction. In
Buchholz Gallery,
New
and May.
York. Andre Masson [exhibition catalog] 1942.
Translated by Maria Jolas. Also published in Volontes {Paris) Nov.

21.
22.
j,
79^5.
La naissance du cubisme. Les Temps Modernes {Paris) v.i, no.4, p.625-639, Jan. 1946.
The state of painting in Paris, 1945 assessment. Horizon {London) v. 12, no.71, p.333341,
Nov.
1945.
23. Elie Lascaux. Centres

24. Faut-il ecrire
une
{Limoges) no.3 Feb. 1946.
histoire
du gout? Critique
{Paris) no.5, p.423-429, Oct. 1946.
25.
Eugene de Kermadec. La Revue Internationale
26.
Juan Gris:
27.
Juan Gris, his
28.
A translation
A propos d'une conference de Paul Klee. Les Temps Modernes
hsued
{Paris) v.2, no. 11, p.397-403, Dec. 1946.
sa vie, son oeuvre, ses ecrits. 344p. plus 51 plates Paris, Gallimard, 1946.
in revised edition, English text.
New Yor\
1947.
and work. i77p. plus 113 plates New York, Curt Valentin, 1947.
and revision, by Douglas Cooper, of French edition {1946).
life
(Paris) v.2, no.i6, p.758-
764, Jan. 1947.

29.
30.
La place de Georges Seurat. Critique (Paris) v.2, no. 8-9, p. 54-59, Jan.-Feb. 1947.
Andre Masson illustrateur. In Skira, Albert (Publisher). Vingt ans d'activite.
p.20
[Geneve, 1948].
31.
L'Art negre
34.
Mallarme
et le cubisme. Presence Africaine (Paris-Da\ar) no.3

^9A'Âlso published in Horizon (London), 1948.
32. Negro art and cubism. Horizon (London) v. 18, no. 108, p.412-420, Dec. 1948.
33. Juan Gris In San Francisco. Museum of Art. Picasso, Gris, Miro: the Spanish masters of
twentieth century painting, p.67-73 San Francisco,

et la peinture.
Les Lettres
v.3, part 3, special
The Museum,
number, 1948.
1948.
35'36.
Le
veritable Bearnais. Artes
(Antwerp) no.
1948.
Ursprung und Entwicklung des Kubismus. In

ster franzosischer
Jardot,
Maurice & Martin, Kurt. Die Mei-
Malerei der Gegenwart. Baden-Baden,
37. Preface. In Brussels. Palais des Beaux-Arts.
Woldemar
Klein, 1948.
Henri Laurens [exhibition catalog] Mar.
1949.
38. Preface. In Malraux,
Andre. Les Conquerants,
illustre
par
Andre Masson. Geneve, Al-
bert Skira, 1949.

39. Les Sculptures de Picasso. 216 photographies de Brassai. Paris, Editions
40.
The
Rise of Cubism.
art,
1949.
Henry Aronson
of:
du Chene, 1949.
of modern
(Documents
edited by Robert Motherwell.)
Translation by
XI
New York, Wittenborn, Schultz, Inc.,
Der Weg zum Kubismus (1920).
To my
friend
Hermann Rupf
Chapter
Impressionism rejuvenated painting

old superfluous laws.
Its
one generation. With

technics, sputtered
The
it
brightened the palette and broke with
it,
illusionism appeared as one
and extinguished
suffice for
last
the literary sense of
fashion and after
itself.
not lyric in
lyric,
mood, but lyric in the painterly sense of form. The purpose

which painting had fulfilled before Masaccio in a narrative
him
had vanished.
in a dramatic fashion,
for that reason painting in our time has
become
lyric, its
stimulus the
pure intense delight in the beauty of things. Lyric painting celebrates

without epic or dramatic overtones.
of the
work
of art.
more than
burst of color pyro-
period following Impressionism must be described as
of recording history,
And
goal, however, was too limited to
The
It strives
nature of the
new
painting
is
beauty
clearly characterized as
representational as well as structural: representational in that
duce the formal beauty of things structural
this
to capture this beauty in the unity
in
its
it
tries to
repro-
attempt to grasp the meaning
of this formal beauty in the painting.
Representation and structure conflict. Their reconciliation by the

ing,
and the
stages along the road to this goal, are the subject of this
new
work.
paint-
Chapter
At
the beginning of the road
collapsed with the death of
was destined
painting in
its
two attempts may be
The
effort to translate
was not new;
depth into plane
it
resembled Egyptian
relations.
Lyricism of form
could never have been realized in this way, and so the expression of the
intention of the time
The second attempt was

other than delight in form.
beauty and carry
saw only
To
he
light,
that of Paul Cezanne, the point of departure for all
it
He
lyric.
In
it
there
was no longer any motivation
struggled with the object, trying to capture
into his painting.
Where
it
in
his friends the Impressionists
he used light to shape the three dimensional
object.
understand Cezanne's limitations one must remember the time in which
lived.
His friends were the plein
he regarded the
his
artistic
was not achieved.
painting of today. His art was
all its
first
originator, the highly gifted Georges Seurat. It
to collapse. Seurat's solution
its
distinguished.
air painters,
worshippers of
object, not light, as the essential, but
light.
To be sure,
much of
he was too
time to have been able to renounce the concept of light falling from a single
source.
trated
On
on
the other hand, he disregarded the color of the object and concen-
its
form.
Therefore, his renunciation of illusionism was only partial. Cezanne's tech-
nique
as follows: perspective
is
is
mostly conceived
as if the spectator stands
higher than the objects in the painting. This allows a more penetrating delinea-
forms without, however, destroying their
tion of their
have already seen, light

falling
from
here too in the
brown
a red
spirit of
harmony he
Cezanne seems
form made him

nents of his
was
The
color
is
objectivated light
on the
object. It clings,
the time, to harmonies a yellow gray tone in his maturity,

:
The
tone in his later years.
work;
the structure of the

color
used as a means of representing objects, but without
is
several sides.
As we
fidelity to nature.
artist's
in the structure
discolors
he
constant preoccupation
is
with
distorts the object, just as in the
it.
to have felt discoloration to be the lesser evil; distorting the
suffer
more. That
art, failing to
is
evident from
all his
conversations.
understand the conflict in the soul of
so in advance of his time, tried often
enough
work. Art since Masaccio had no such distortion to fear since
harmonies calmly,
It
Cezanne
as
who
to turn these utterances against
him, but closer observation will reveal that distortion of form had
structure entirely overboard.
Oppo-
this artist
to occur in his
it
had thrown
accepted transformation of color through color
also did.
However,
as
soon as a
lyric art
sought to
extoU the form of objects and, simultaneously, to comprehend them within the
unity of the
work
unpleasant, since
of art, distortion of the object
was
it
Cezanne's great contribution which has

liew art
beyond the painter
who must
Corot had already
made
had not sought
object, but
to be extolled.
the father of the entire
Here Cezanne took
that great step
be regarded as his predecessor Corot.

:
the virtuoso of sunsets, but the master of the

ings.
necessary, although
which was
made him
precisely in his return to structure.
lies
became
a betrayal of just that beauty
Not
Cprot,
Pont de Mantes and figure paint-
persistent attempts to grasp the three dimensional
structure. Therefore,
one finds no distortion in his
work.
In
what
easy to see
respect Cezanne's great follower

;
Derain also
felt
Andre Derain goes beyond him
transformation of color to be an
way
organize his structure in such a
that the painting,
evil.
He
is
strives to
though strongly
unified,
nevertheless shows the greatest possible fidelity to nature, with every object beits "true" form and its "true" color. Light becomes for him a pure
means he guides it as it best supports the creation of form, and subordinates it,
whenever possible, to the local color. There is no question here of the aesthetic
ing given
;
worth of
his austere
and mighty
Cezanne and Derain
art ;
he
is
one of the greatest of French painters.
will stand in art history, like the masters of the Trecento,
as painters of transition, but in a reverse sense.
tween representation and structure

cess.
Encouraged by
of this conflict.
their great
Their solution of the
in painting will
conflict be-
never result in complete suc-
example Cubism seeks new paths
to the solution
Chapter
At the
3
few prefatory words concerning the name of
outset, a
necessary to avoid considering

sions.
As
the
as a
it
program, and thus arrive
name "Impressionism" had been
tory term applied by
its
enemies.
art critic of the Gil Bias;
Its
before,
this school are

at false conclu-
"Cubism" was
a deroga-
inventor was Louis Vauxcelles, at that time
sometime before,
in the years 1904-05,
he had coined an-
"Les Fauves," the wild beasts

a term which has since fortunately disappeared.*
other meaningless
name
for the avant garde of the Independants of that time
In September 1908 he met Matisse

jury for that year, and
who
told
paintings "avec des petits cubes."
who was a member of the
him
To
that
Braque had sent
"fished out again," as
another by Guerin, both of

theless
* This
withdrew
someone put
two
it,
in 1915 [translator's note].
With
of the six paint-
by Marquet, and
whom were members of the jury, but
all six.
book was written
of paper
of I'Estaque painted that spring.
the sensitivity characteristic of such bodies, the jury rejected
One was
to the Fall Salon
them he drew on a piece

peak, and between them some cubes.
describe
two ascending lines meeting in a

He was referring to Braque's landscapes
ings submitted.
Salon d'Autorrme
Braque never-
From
Matisse's
word "cube" Vauxcelles then invented the meaningless "Cub-
ism" which he used for the

pendants, in
on the 1909 Salon des Indeconnection with two other paintings by Braque, a still life and a
landscape. Strangely
first
enough he
time in an
later
added
article
to this
term the adjective "peruvien"
and spoke of "Peruvian Cubism" and "Peruvian Cubists" which made the
desig-
more meaningless. This adjective soon disappeared, but the name

"Cubism" endured and entered colloquial language, since Braque and Picasso,
nation even
the painters originally so designated, cared very

that or
something
These two
new
art,
else.
artists are
the great founders of Cubism. In the evolution of the
the contributions of both are intimately related, often hardly distin-
guishable. Friendly conversations between the
painting
many
art
is
two afforded the new method
advances which one or the other
serve credit; both are great

quieter, Picasso's
and the
whether they were called
little
is
and admirable
nervous and turbulent.
put into practice. Both de-
first
each in his
artists,
The
lucid
own
way. Braque's
Frenchman Braque
fanatically searching Spaniard Picasso stand together.
In the year 1906, Braque, Derain, Matisse and

for expression
dissolving the
through
form
many
others were
of the object! Cezanne's great
still
striving
and completely
color, using only pleasant arabesques,
example was
stood. Painting threatened to debase itself to the level of
still
not under-
ornamentation
it
sought
be "decorative," to "adorn" the wall.
to
Picasso
had remained
indifferent to the temptation of color.
another path, never abandoning his concern for the object.

sion"
which had
existed in his earlier
work now vanished.
taining fidelity to nature began to take shape.
modeled
in chiaroscuro.
They appeared
"Pompeiian Period." But
Here
I
of
it
should be
He
"classic"
Picasso's intention
The
He had
A lyricism of form re-
created large nudes roundly
and
remained
made clear that I do not mean an
his friends referred to a
unfulfilled.
established
program when
speak of Picasso's or Braque's intentions, endeavors and thoughts.
ing to describe in words the inner urge of these

in their minds, yet rarely
mentioned
pursued
literary "expres-
artists,
the ideas
in their conversations,
am attempt-
no doubt
clearly
and then only casu-
ally.
''
Toward the end of 1906, then,

gave way to hard angular forms;
the soft round contours in Picasso's paintings

instead of delicate rose, pale yellow
green, the massive forms were weighted with leaden white, gray
even though
*
it
unfinished.
It
d' Avignon.
Reproduced on
women,
fruit
cannot be called other than unfinished,
represents a long period of work.
Les Demoiselles
left
light
and black.
Early in 1907 Picasso began a strange large painting* depicting
and drapery, which he
and
p. 23.
Begun
in the spirit of the
works
of 1906,
it
contains in one section the endeavors of 1907
and thus never
consti-
tutes a unified whole.
The
nudes, with large, quiet eyes, stand rigid, like mannequins. Their
round bodies
and white. That
are flesh-colored, black
is
stiff,
the style of 1906.
In the foreground, however, alien to the style of the rest of the painting, appear a crouching figure and a bowl of
fruit.
The
not roundly modeled in chiaroscuro.
low, next to pure black and white. This
upsurge, a desperate titanic clash with
Chese
problem^were the
elor on a
colors are luscious blue, strident yelis
the beginning of Cubism, the
of the problems at once.
to
comprehend them
Not
form by
the simulation of
dimensional through drawing on a
color,
and
finally, the
and highest
strictest
chiaroscuro, but the depiction of the three
flat
surface.
uncompromising, organically articulated
problem of
m the unity of that surfaced
"Representation," however, and "comprehension" in the

sense.
first
basic tasks of pain ting: to represent three dimensions
and
surface,
flat
all
These forms are drawn angularly,
most
No
pleasant "composition" but
structure. In addition, there
difficult of all, that of
was the
the amalgamation,
the reconciliation of the whole.
Rashly, Picasso attacked
the problems at once.
all
He
placed sharp-edged im-
ages on the canvas, heads and nudes mostly, in the brightest colors yellow, red,
:
blue and black.
He
direction,
and
But, after
months
applied the colors in thread-like fashion to serve as lines of
to build up, in conjunction
of the
plete solution of the
At
this
for not
point
with the drawing, the
plastic effect.
most laborious searching, Picasso realized that com-
problem did not
must make
it
lie
in this direction.
clear that these paintings are
having attained their goal.
An
artist
who
is
no
less
"beautiful"
possessed of the divine gift,
genius, always produces aesthetic creations, whatever their aspect, whatever

their "appearance"
may be. His innermost
appearance of the work of
art,
however,
is
being creates the beauty the external

;
the product of the time in
which
it is
created.
short period of exhaustion followed; the
problems of pure structure.
series of pictures
artist's
battered spirit turned to
appeared in which he seems to
have been occupied only with the articulation of the color planes. This withdrawal from the diversity of the physical world to the undisturbed peace of the
work of art was of short duration. Soon Picasso perceived

his art to the level of
the danger of lowering
ornament.
In the spring of 1908 he resumed his quest, this time solving one by one the
problems that
arose.
He had
to begin
with the most important thing, and that
seemed to be the explanation of form, the representation of the three-dimensional and its position in space on a two dimensional surface. As Picasso himself
once
said,
"In a Raphael painting
it is
the tip of the nose to the mouth.
would be
At
possible."
the
not possible to establish the distance from
should like to paint pictures in which that
same time
of course, the
problem of comprehension
of structure was always in the foreground. The question of color, on the

other hand, was completely by-passed.
Thus
Picasso painted figures resembling
Congo
the simplest form. His perspective in these works
Light
is
and
sculptures,
is
of
still lifes
similar to that of Cezanne.
never more than a means to create form through chiaroscuro, since
he did not
at this
time repeat the unsuccessful attempt of 1907 to create form
through drawing. Of these paintings one can no longer
say,
"The
light
comes
become completely a means. The pictures are almost monochromatic brick red and red brown, often with a gray or
gray green ground, since the color is meant only to be chiaroscuro.
from
this or that side," because light has

;
While Picasso was painting
and
in Paris,
in the
summer,
at
La Rue-des-Bois
(near Creil, Oise), Braque, at the other end of France, in I'Estaque (near Marseilles)
was painting the
series of
from
one, totally different
Braque arrived at the
Picasso's
same point
we have
landscapes
connection existed between the two
artists.
work
already mentioned.
This venture was a completely
of 1907;
by an
as Picasso. If, in the
No
new
entirely different route
whole history of
art,
there
were not already
sufficient
conditioned in
particularity by the spirit of the time, that even the most power-
its
proof that the appearance of the aesthetic product
ful artists unconsciously execute
distance,
its
then
will,
this
would be
proof. Separated
is
by
and working independently, the two
effort to paintings
artists devoted their most intense

which share an extraordinary resemblance. This relationship
between their paintings continued but ceased to be astonishing because the

friendship between the
two
artists,
begun
in the winter of that year,
brought
about a constant exchange of ideas.
Picasso
scape,
plates,
with cylindrical
symmetrical
sought to
space.
and Braque had
make
to begin
tree trunks
vessels,
round
us aware of the beauty of

it
and rectangular houses;

fruits
before.
form
and
sort: in landstill
life,
figures.
in the simplest objects,
beauty which the
now become
artist
with
They
to define their position in
indirect advantage of lyric painting. It has
These objects have
flected splendor of the
in
and one or two nude
these objects as plastic as possible,
Here we touch upon the
overlooked
with objects of the simplest
where we had
made
carelessly
eternally vivid in the re-
has abstracted from them.
Derain, too, had abandoned decorative light painting in 1907, preceding
Braque by a few months. But from the
outset, their roads
were
fidelity to
Cubism, no matter
how closely his ideas may otherwise parallel
nature in his painting separates
diverse. Derain's
him
endeavor to retain
forever
from
those of Braque.
Chapter
work along common and parallel paths. The subjects of their still life painting became more complex, the
representation of nudes more detailed. The relation of objects to one another
underwent further differentiation, and structure, heretofore relatively uncomIn the winter of 1908, the two friends began to
plicated
as,
for example, in a
still
life
of the spring of 1907
whose
struc-
ture forms a simple spiral took on more intricacy and variety. Color, as the
expression of light, or chiaroscuro, continued to be used as a
means
of shaping
form. Distortion of form, the usual consequence of the conflict between representation
and
Among
the
structure,
new
evident.
subjects introduced at this time
which Braque was the

portant role in cubist
and
was strongly
first
still life
to paint,
were musical instruments,
and which continued
painting. Other
new
to play such
an im-
motifs were fruit bowls, bottles
glasses.
During the summer of 1909 which Picasso spent at Horta (near Tolosa, Spain)
and Braque at La Roche Guyon (on the Seine, near Mantes) the new language
of
form was further augmented and enriched, but
left essentially
unchanged.
Several times during the spring of 1910 Picasso attempted to

of his pictures with color.
That
is,
endow
he tried to use color not only
the forms
an expression
as
of light, or chiaroscuro,' for the creation of form, but rather as an equally im-
Each time he was obliged to paint over the color he had

thus introduced; the single exception is a small nude of the period (about 18 x 23
centimeters in size) in which a piece of fabric is colored in brilliant red.
portant end in
itself.
At the same time Braque made an important
discovery. In one of his pictures
he painted a completely naturalistic nail casting
its
fulness of this innovation will be discussed later.
shadow on
The
a wall.
corporation of this "real" object into the unity of the painting.
both
/
artists consistently
The
use-
difficulty lay in the in-
From
then on,
limited the space in the background of the picture. In a
landscape, for instance, instead of painting an illusionistic distant horizon in
which the eye

mountain. In
pose. This
lost itself,
or
still life
method
the artists closed the three dimensional space with a
nude
painting, the wall of a
of limiting space
room
served the
same pur-
had already been used frequently by Ce-
zanne.
During the summer, again spent
in I'Estaque,
the introduction of "real objects," that
Braque took a further step
of realistically painted things intro-
is,
duced, undistorted in form and color, into the picture.

I
We find lettering for the
time in a Guitar Player of the period. Here again,
first
covered a
new world
of beauty
this
in
painting un-
lyrical
time in posters, display windows and
commercial signs which play so important a role in our visual impressions.
Much more
free
important, however, was the decisive advance which
from the language previously used by painting. This occurred
set
in
Cubism
Cadaques
on the Mediterranean near the French border) where Picasso spent

summer. Little satisfied, even after weeks of arduous labor, he returned to
(in Spain,
his
Paris in the fall with his unfinished works. But
A new tool had been forged for the achievement of
had pierced the closed form.

the
he had taken the great step he
new purpose.
Years of research had proved that closed form did not permit an expression
sufficient for the
their
own
two
artists'
body, and, since no object

tact point
aims. Closed
surfaces, viz., the skin;

is
visible
it
form
without
dimensional world the object
Memory images
is
form
color.
a distance.
This chia-
of objects. In the actual three
of tactile perceptions can also be verified
from
this closed
"skin" as the con-
there to be touched even after light
accommodations of the retina of the eye enable
three dimensional objects
10
light, to paint this
between the body and light where both merge into
roscuro can provide only an illusion of the
different
accepts objects as contained by
then endeavors to represent
on
us, as
is
eliminated.
visible bodies.
it
The
were, to "touch"
Two dimensional painting is not con-
cerned with
all this.
Thus the
method, endeavored to give the

'
surface of objects.
Since
it
illusion of
was never more than
It
was the mission of color
form by painting
light as color
on the
"illusion."
form
to create the
as chiaroscuro, or light that
had become perceivable, there was no possibility of rendering

itself. It
form
painters of the Renaissance, using the closed
could only be painted as objectivated
local color or color
light.
^n addition,
Braque and Picasso were disturbed by the unavoidable distortion

form which worried many spectators initiallvNpicasso himself often repeated
the ludicrous remark made by his friend, the sculptor Manolo, before one of his
of
figure paintings
"What would you
Barcelona station with such
say
if
This
faces.''"
your parents were to

a drastic
is
tween memory images and the figures represented

between the
real object as articulated
the same object as
example of the
in the painting.
by the rhythm of forms
exists in the spectator's
it
Through
casso during the summer of

new way of painting.
Dn
/"
form
1910
the one hand, Picasso's

of objects
through
and
it
the
you
combined
relation be-
new method made
work
"distor-
of art creates this
Braque and
to avoid these difficulties
it
Pi-
by a
possible to "represent" the
their position in space instead of attempting to imitate
illusionistic
and
in the painting
discoveries of
became possible
at the
Comparison
memory inevitably results in
tions" as long as even the slightest verisimilitude in the

conflict in the spectator.
call for
means. With the representation of solid objects
this
them
could
be effected by a process of representation that has a certain resemblance to geometrical drawing. This
a matter of course since the
is
the three dimensional object on a
no longer has
two dimensional
from
several sides,
of both
is
to render
plane. In addition, the painter
to limit himself to depicting the object as
one given viewpoint, but wherever necessary for

it
aim
fuller
it
would appear from
comprehension, can show
and from above and below.
Representation of the position of objects in space
is
done
as follows
instead of
beginning from a supposed foreground and going on from there to give an

lusion of depth by
clearly defined
means
of perspective, the painter begins
background. Starting from
scheme
this
from
a definite
background the painter
forms in which each
il-
and
now
works toward the front by
a sort of
sition is clearly indicated,
both in relation to the definite background and to
of
object's po-
other objects. Such an arrangement thus gives a clear and plastic view. But,
only
this
scheme of forms were
to exist
it
would
ing the "representation" of things from the outer world.
arrangement of planes, cylinders, quadrangles,
At
if
be impossible to see in the paint-
One would
only see an
etc.
this point Braque's introduction of undistorted real objects into the paint-
ing takes on
its
full significance.
When
"real details" are thus introduced the
result
is
a stimulus
which
carries
with
it
memory
images.
Combining the
"real"
stimulus and the scheme of forms, these images construct the finished object in
Thus
the mind.
tator's
the desired physical representation comes into being in the spec-
mind.
Now the rhythmisation necessary for the coordination of the individual parts
into the unity of the
work
of art can take place without producing disturbing
distortions, since the object in effect

is,
since
is
no longer "present"
does not yet have the least resemblance to actuality. Therefore, the
it
stimulus cannot
words, there
come
into conflict with the product of the assimilation. In other
exist in the
painting the scheme of forms and small real details as
stimuli integrated into the unity of the
only in the
human
mind
work
is
no
possibihty of a conflict here,
object once "recognized" in the painting
As
is
now
and
yet the
"seen" with a perspicacity of
illusionistic art is capable.
to color,
freely
of art; there exists, as well, but
of the spectator, the finished product of the assimilation, the
head, for instance. There
which no
in the painting, that
its
employed,
utilization as chiaroscuro
tion of local color,
its
had been abolished. Thus,
within the unity of the work of
as color,
on
application
a small scale
poration into the finished representation in the
is
art.
it
could be
For the representa-
sufficient to effect its incor-
mind
of the spectator.
In the words of Locke, these painters distinguish between primary and
ondary
thesear e: the object 's form, and
qualitiesy-as exactly as possibleÎn- painting
position in space.
color
and
They merely
tactile quality,
of the spectator.
This
new language
longer bound to the

ject
from
leaving their incorporation into the object to the mind

^^^^""^
has given painting an unprecedented freedom.
more or
a single viewpoint.
less verisimilar optic

It
analytical study of that object
It is
no
image which describes the ob-
can, in order to give a thorough representation
of the object's primary characteristics, depict
them
which the
as stereometric
same
object,
drawing on
can provide an
spectator then fuses into one again
mind. The representation does not necessarily have to be in the closed man-
ner of the stereometric drawing colored planes, through their direction and
;
ative position,
fornis.'This
was the great advance made

if
he
at
Cadaques. Instead of an analytical
prefers, also create in this
way
a synthesis of
the object, or in the words of Kant, "put together the various conceptions
comprehend
rel-
can bring together the formal scheme without uniting in closed
description, the painter can,
their variety in
Naturally, with
II
its
suggest the secondary characteristics such"aS"
the plane, or, through several representations of the
in his
see-
They endeavor to represent the primary, or most important
qualities.
this, as
and
one perception."
with any
new mode
of expression in painting, the as-
similation
which
leads to seeing the represented things objectively does not im-
mediately take place
But for
lyric
when
painting to
the spectator
fulfill its
a pleasure to the eye of the spectator.

finally,
but in order to facilitate
is
unfamiliar with the
purpose completely,
it,
To be
it
its
and Dice and
Glass, Playing Cards
which H. G. Lewes referred
arise
connected with the
title
such as Bottle
titles,
so on. In this way, the condition will
and memory images
to as "preperception"
will then focus
just
urgency upon the spectator,
cubist pictures should always be provided with descriptive
and
language.
always takes place
sure, assimilation
and impress
new
must be more than
much more
easily
on the
stimuli in the
painting.
Titling will also prevent sensory illusions of the kind
name, and brought about

geometric
style.
made upon
its
Here we must make
the spectator
and the
a sharp distinction
lines of the
painting
and the designation "Geometric Art" grew out

tators
who "saw"
which gave Cubism
between the impression
itself.
The name "Cubism"
of the impression of early spec-
geometric forms in the paintings.'^his impression
fied, since the visual
its
designation, so popular, particularly in France, as a
unjusti-
is
conception desired by the painter by no means resides in
the geometric forms, but rather in the representation of the reproduced objects^
How does such a sensory illusion come about

whom lack of habit has prevented from making
It
.''
objective perception.
Man
"see something" in the
is
work
occurs only with observers
the associations
to
possessed by an urge to objectivate; he wants to

of art
which should
and he
sure of this
is
rep-
up memory images, but the
resent something. His imagination forcefully calls
only ones which present themselves, the only ones which seem to
lines
which lead
fit
the straight
and uniform curves are geometric images. Experience has shown that
this
"geometric impression" disappears completely as soon as the spectator familiarizes
himself with the
new method
of expression
we disregard representation, however, and
If
dividual lines in the painting, there
is
and gains
in perception.
limit ourselves to the "actual" in-
no disputing the
fact that they are very
often straight lines and uniform curves. Furthermore, the forms

serve to delineate are often similar to the circle
and
which they
rectangle, or even to stereo-
metric representations of cubes, spheres and cylinders. But, such straight lines
and uniform curves
are present in all styles of the plastic arts
which do not have
as their goal the illusionistic imitation of nature! Architecture,

art,
which
is
a plastic
but at the same time non-representational, uses these lines extensively.
same
is
true of applied
have regular
are the
lines.
permanent
straight lines.
13
art.
Man
creates
no
building,
In architecture and applied

basic forms.
They do not
But they are deeply rooted
in
art,
no product which does not

and cylinders
cubes, spheres
exist in the natural
man
The
world, nor do
they are the necessary condi-
tion for all objective perception.
Our remarks
until
now
about visual perception have concerned
content
its
two dimensional "seen" and the three dimensional "known" visual

images. Now we are concerned with the form of these images, the form of our
perception of the physical world. The geometric forms we have just mentioned
alone, the
provide us with the solid structure; on this structure
we
build the products of
our imagination which are composed of stimuli on the retina and
They
ages.
are our categories of vision.
When we
world, we always demand those forms but

their purity. The flat picture which we "see"
horizontal and vertical, and secondly on the
direct our
memory
view on the outer
they are never given to us in

bases itself mainly
We
circle.
test
on the
actual line exists,
horizon which
is
we
all
straight
the "seen" lines of the
Where
physical world for their greater or lesser relationship to these basic lines.
no
im-
supply the "basic" line ourselves. For example, a water
limited on both sides appears horizontal to us; one
which
is
unlimited on both sides appears curved. Furthermore, only our knowledge of

simple stereometric forms enables us to add the third dimension to the
which our eye
ture
perceives.
Without the cube, we would have no
flat pic-
feeling of
the three dimensionality of objects, and without the sphere and cylinder,
feeling of the varieties of this three dimensionality.
these
forms
no world
is
of objects. Architecture
forms which
periods
its
the necessary condition, without
we
always
demand
and applied
ability to create
them. This
its
works Cubism,
seeing,
world the sculpture of

;
these forms insofar as
and the two-dimensional painting of such
same longing
ability
which no "representational"
knowledge of
art realize in space these basic
in vain of the natural
in
its
use of "basic lines."
possessed not only by the longing for these lines
In
a priori
which there would be no
which have turned away from nature approaches
representational goal permits,
riods gives expression to the

is
Our
shows
plastic art has
in accordance
with
and forms, but
produced other
Humanity
also
lines
world
by the
and forms.
role as both constructive
resentational art, brings the forms of the physical
pe-
those civilizations in
itself clearly in
its
no
and rep-
as close as possible to
Through connection with these basic forms, upon

which all visual and tactile perception is based, Cubism provides the clearest elucidation and foundation of all forms. The unconscious effort which we have to
make with each object of the physical world before we can perceive its form is
their underlying basic forms.
lessened
by cubist painting through
these objects
and
its
demonstration of the relation between
basic forms. Like a skeletal
frame these basic forms underUe
the impression of the represented object in the final visual result of the painting;
they are no longer "seen" but are the basis of the "seen" form.
It is
14
not our intention to outline a complete history of
Cubism here.
We would
exceed the limits of this work
any further,
artists
created.
ing,
Our
and
This
we were
fix the position of
Cubism
which guided
to demonstrate the motives

style has
is
new
its
founders.
to paint "cubistically."
the expression of the intellectual spirit of our time.
sary result of this will be that
all
true artists of the
The
coming generation
This
neces-
will es-
in the wider sense.
pouse Cubism
Those who have already adopted Cubism include talented

ented
has been
art
in the history of paint-
taken ever greater possession of the appearance of paint-
growing number of painters has begun
painting
development of the two
to follow the
that the definitive language of the
mission was to
new
ing; an ever
lyric
now
if
Cubism,
artists; in
ate aesthetic products
too, they
remain what they were. Those with talent
those without
as well as untal-
ance," only the result of the purpose
it
do
not.
which the
For Cubism
is
cre-
only an "appear-
time has
intellectual spirit of the
imposed upon painting. Whether the picture with the cubist appearance will be
an aesthetic achievement, whether the aesthetically inclined spectator will be
compelled to designate
it
genius. Yet every talented
He
with Cubism.
artist, as
young
will have
contemporary of Titian in
The
as beautiful depends, as always, only

artist will
little
Italy
on the
painter's
have to come to an understanding
chance of getting along without
just as a
it,
could never have reverted to the style of Giotto.
the executor of the unconscious plastic will of
himself with the style of the period, which
is
mankind,
identifies
the expression of this will.
Just as the illusionistic art of the Renaissance created a tool for itself in oil
painting,
which alone could
the smallest details, so
satisfy its striving for verisimilar representation of
Cubism had
to invent
purpose. For the planes of cubist painting
sometimes
sticky.
Cubism
created for
oil
itself
new means
color
is
for an entirely opposite
often unsuitable, ugly,
new media
in the
and
most varied mate-
colored strips of paper, lacquer, newspaper, and in addition, for the real
rials:
details, oilcloth, glass,
sawdust, et(C)
In the years 1913 and 1914 Braque and Picasso attempted to eliminate the use of
color as chiaroscuro,
which had
amalgamating painting and

shadows
now
how
still
persisted to
some extent
sculpture. Instead of having to demonstrate
The
fail. It
form could
illustrate the relationship di-
attempts to do this go far back. Picasso had already begun such
first
an enterprise in 1909, but since he did

destined to
by
through
one plane stands above, or in front of a second plane, they could
superimpose the planes one on the other and
rectly.
in their painting,
this
it
within the limits of closed form,
resulted in a kind of colored bas-relief.
Only
in
it
was
open planal
union of painting and sculpture be realized. Despite current
prejudice, this endeavor to increase plastic expression through the collaboration
of the
two
arts
must be warmly approved; an enrichment of the
plastic arts
is
certain to result
from
it.
number
of sculptors like Lipchitz, Laurens
chipenko has since taken up and developed
Nor
is
this
form
new
entirely
made
the Ivory Coast have
lower part of the face; to

equally
flat,
ple strip of
eyes,
as follows: a
this is joined the
sometimes bent
slightly
method
completely
slightly shorter
true that the
form
rather a tight formal
scheme of forms and

uli.
The
i6
plane forms the
flat
backward. While the nose
is
is
result in the
is still
to
as a sim-
form the
hexahedron forms the mouth. The frontal surfaces

closed here; however,
scheme of
plastic
it is
is
represented by
raffia.
not the "real" form, but
primeval force. Here, too,
"real details" (the painted eyes,
mind
sometimes
added
wood, two cylinders protrude about eight centimeters
and one
negroes of
of expression in their
high forehead, which
of the cylinder and hexahedron are painted, and the hair

It is
The
in the history of the plastic arts.
use of a very similar
dance masks. These are constructed
and Ar-
this sculpto-painting.
mouth and
of the spectator, the desired effect,
is
we
find a
hair) as stim-
human face.
Chapter
Our
subject
is
the rise of Cubism. Therefore,
we cannot
discuss here the
artists who later joined the movement, but only those who created it.
One of these is Fernand Leger. It would be unjust and false not to name him
among the pathfinders of Cubism, along with Braque and Picasso. He does not
numerous
them
stand contemporaneously with

their stimulus,
he developed
in his
Leger had been a painter of
which was completely
It
depicted
forms the
;
were
trees
The
was not Cubism, somebody
but "Tubism."
said,
color
it
was
still
appeared in the Salon
was
trees.*
Everything
like stove pipes, the
delicate
men com-
and harmonized. This
harmoniously tuned, pale and delicately applied,
the forms were created out of mist. Slowly
Nudes
17
It
years following brought only one change in Leger's art: in the color. In
1910 and 191 1
exhibited a large painting
men between
posed of cylinders and spheres.
The
arrived at different results.
Then one day he
from his previous work.
different
to the simplest
beginning of the road, but, following
own way, and
light.
des Independants of the year 1910.
was reduced
at the
in the Forest, 1909-10.
Reproduced on
it
p. 33.
as if
increased in intensity until the pic-
tures burst into an exultation of radiant blue, red
As can be
He
seen,
and white
Leger did not begin modestly, with uncomplicated
has seldom painted
and has never engaged
still lifes,
with the object because his treatment of the object

Picasso's
which
is
only ornamental. There
is
in his
subjects.
in desperate struggle
much more
is
and Braque's. However, he does not succumb
stract art"
in the purest tones.
arbitrary than
to the delusion of "ab-
work always
a point of de-
parture grounded in visual experience. Sometimes he strays far
from
point, treating the experience variously in different pictures, indulging,

say, in variations
on the theme. The
result
is
might
an architecture of form which no
longer conveys to the spectator the original visual experience. Leger's goal
painting
is
itself,
this
and he subordinates everything
else to
the
is
For him, the subject
it.
often a pretext rather than a theme.
One may well ask whether this
Cubism. Certainly
is still
even
it is,
if
Leger
at-
taches too exclusive a significance to the unity of the painting at the expense of
diversity of the visual experience. But, adherence to the visual experience
and nevertheless the

sense.
basis of Leger's
work, and
it is still
We have recognized Cubism as the endeavor to capture the three
sional diversity of the outer
the dimension of depth
in contrast to the "playing cards" of Manet, Gauguin and Matisse,

correctness
dimen-
world within the unity of the painting. Cubism
seeks to reproduce that three dimensional diversity
plane projections of Seurat.
is still
adherence in the cubist
As
the
silly
name "Cubism" put
it,
and the
with accidental
Braque and Picasso emphasize the cubic.
Leger does the same: he
is
a cubist.
But he emphasizes
than those of Braque and Picasso. Because of that he
is
it
with other means
entitled to a place in this
work.
He
Leger simplifies and coarsens his forms.

closely resembling the basic
them
returns
is
always careful to pre-
serve the closed form, never reaching the point of rupturing
it.
by Leger appears like a powerful Golem, a clumsy puppet.
molded and arched through chiaroscuro

Light serves only to depict the form. This
most
in the simplest,
is
and shading the
A figure painted
The forms
other. Little attention

is
made
is
is
i8
through
The
eye
is
deep into the "background."
not shy about distorting the object.
A powerfully undulating rhythm
of forms organizes the planes of his paintings. In the

objects
given to the
clear
overlapping, and sometimes through ordinary linear perspective.

led, as in pre-cubist painting,
are
significant way.
done with the greatest possible em-
space; the relative position of the objects in the painting
Leger
most
forms of cube, sphere and cylinder, while showing
a special preference for the cylinder. In doing this he
phasis by lighting one side
to shapes
which make up the picture
wake
are ruthlessly distorted.
of this rhythm, the
In the above description
we
see again to
some extent the tendencies we recogwork of Picasso and
nized as significant for the years 1908 and 1909 in the
Braque. But Leger departs entirely from these tendencies in his treatment of
color.
That
is
in his attitude
easy to understand. Leger
is
toward the object than the other
only a necessary passing concession

tails
as
is,
Leger's final goal.
He
much more arbitrary

two painters. What to them was
have
said,
the suppression or the coarsening of de-
oflfers
the spectator big lumpish syntheses im-
An
prisoned in a cyclopian, piled-up structure.
object so outrageously certainly cannot regard
artist
its
who
treats the
forms of the
color as inviolable; that
is
un-
He colors the forms in his paintings arbitrarily, in accordance with

function in the work. He is hardly concerned with the actual color of the
derstandable.
their
represented object. In this respect also he

;
Picasso
who
devoted so
much
duction of this "local color."
is
basically different
effort in the years
The endeavor
from Braque and
from 1910 to 1914 to the

two artists, devoted
of those
reproto the
most penetrating expression of the
And now, what does Leger
He
is
animated by
endow
nate and sweep everything before
boundlessly seething strength.
^9
is
want ?
completely foreign to Leger.
He
wants to produce an
effect.
He
dimensionality of form and for stridency of color.
strives for the weightiest three
a desire to
object,
really
it.
his painting
Leger's
with power, to make
work shows
it
domi-
a wealth of unspent,
Picasso,
20
Two
Xiides
Chapter
Many artists who use the cubist language of forms have tried to use it for aims
we have outHned. Only two of these attempts deserve mention
other than those
here, for only these

I
am referring
two have
a palpable significance.
in the first place to that
cludes the Italian school of that

cel
name
Duchamp, who have pursued
over to Cubism, while they were

of
all their
movement
which
in-
Mar-
Even before the
went
similar aims.
still
called Futurism,
as well as several isolated artists, like
Futurists
using Divisionist techniques, the subject
manifestoes was dynamism, the endeavor to represent
movement
in
painting and sculpture. This idea has not been abandoned since that time, for a
school, which was published in 1913 contrasted
Cubism with "dynamic" Futurism.
The Futurists tried to represent movement by depicting the moved part of the
body several times in various positions, by reproducing two or more phases of
movement of the entire figure, or by lengthening or widening the represented
object in the direction of the movement. Can the impression of a moving form
be awakened in the spectator in this way
It cannot. All of these solutions suffer from the same mistake which renders
that impression impossible. In order to produce "movement," at least two vis-
book by Boccioni, one of the

"static"
.''
2/
must
ual images
exist as
succeeding points in time. In Futurism, however, the
They will always be felt as

moving image. This is borne out
various phases exist simultaneously in the painting.
but never as a
diflferent, static, single figures,
by fact,
by Carra, Severini or Boccioni will show.
as observation of paintings
In this way, therefore, the representation of

impossible. But,
if it
were
movement
possible, such representation
in the plastic arts
would be
is
tremendous
source of enrichment. Instead of acting through one single impression, the plas-
would
tic arts
also call into participation those
us only by music,
which extends
in time.
emotions heretofore aroused in
These emotions are associated with
tension and release, sensations possible only in a succession of time.

a possibility
There
Is
there such
exist, in fact,
two
possibilities,
both of which Picasso has indicated in
conversations, without even suspecting their scientific basis; nor has he as yet
them
applied
The
first
in practice.
movement of the body. This would involve

work of art by means of a clock mechanism, and
corresponds to the actual
imparting movement to the
could be accompUshed with statues as well as paintings

targets in shooting booths
which
are set into
in paintings as with
motion by the marksmen's
direct
hits.
There
the
is still
mind
graph
another
way
of bringing about the impression of
based. If images differing to a small
is
movement
in
of the spectator the stroboscopic method, upon which the cinemato-
enough extent
in their spatial defi-
shown in rapid enough succession, an illusion of one object in moveThe first visual image establishes the object, and the succeeding images establish the object in movement. This method has already been employed
for humorous drawings. By painting the various pictures on a transparent material and showing them through a cinematograph projector, a new field with
immeasurable possibilities would open for painting.
In addition to Futurism, there is another tendency, which, designating its aim
nitions are
ment
results.
as non-objective painting,
harmoniously composes colored forms on canvas with-
out any relation to natural objects.
We
can have no doubts about
works, but
it is
not painting.
It
this
tendency.
does not
It
can certainly create pleasant
know the basic problem
comprehension of the diversity of the physical world

art. It
Its
by-passes all of the problems
works seek only
artistic,
but by the decorative urge.
ating
simply ornament.
But
22
is
as
ornament,
which have occupied
to be decorative. This tendency
it
does not
What the
make
of painting: the
in the unity of the

lyric
was not
followers of this
use of the proper
work
of
painting for years.

called forth
by the
movement are
means when
it
cre-
uses the
paper
strips
textiles
and
cides to give
and other media of Cubism, instead of the rich world of ceramics,

glass.
up
possibilities of
When
all
this
tendency, finally cognizant of
claim to being painting, and
ornament,
it
will bring
new
when
it
its
true nature, de-
makes use
of all of the
blood to handicrafts, and will create
the style of our time.
For a
style
grows organically out of the
Cubism has pointed

through
the
way Cubism,
their intense labors.
Picasso, Les Demoiselles d' Avignon
23
aesthetic creation of
its
time,
and
which Picasso and Braque created
Braque,
Picasso,
24
Nude
Two Nudes
Braque, Road near Estaque
25
Picasso,
Woman
with Mandolin
26
Picasso,
Woman
with Mandoliii {Fanny Tellier)
Braque,
27
Woman
with Mandolin
Braque, The Portuguese Guitar Player
28
^.
't4!''
30
"'dS
-fe^
Picasso, Glass, Pipe, Playing
31
Card
Picasso, 5/;// Life
Braque, Oial
32
Still
Life
Leger,
33
Two
Pipe Smo/êrs
Leger,
34
Smoê
over Roofs
Leger,
35
The Card
Party
Date Due
Due
This
is
volume
the ninth
"The Documents
The book
Due
Returned
is set
of
Returned
in the series
Modern
Art."
in i2-on-i4 point
Linotype Granjon with Granjon display and

printed on North Star Dull paper.
viêre
made by
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The
Company
of
composition, printing
and binding have been done by E. L. Hildreth
& Company,
Brattleboro, Vt.
Cover and typography by Paul Rand.

Inside cover design
composed by Paul Rand using
drawings and prints by Braque, Leger and Picasso

taken from the original
German
edition.
Drawing on cover by Georges Braque.
B-5-1
10.0.0.
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c.z
AKCH &
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d.nvo
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The Cubisi Paintars (Aesthetic Meciitationsl,

by RobeK Mothrwell.
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',
'I.OrjtlC
end Pure
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'Ka
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Vision,
piu.i,
I.
4.
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i.
an trom ihe
with Mohoiy-N.-igyj lipprovc-l
With Kandinsky'i Proje Poems.
84
pp.,,
with
On My Way,
Sir
poems
nfw
IrsJ"-. :"?!
Michael Sodleir, with rowisions by
footnotes
ci
Beyond
Am
1948.
-..
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ri->e
i>>
fnock. jornion. Eng!
ond
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B.
148 pp.,
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$12,00,
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(First
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Tranjioted frow the Ere
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"ri-nmlôr-
from the German by Henry ^
.(
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$.0O.
'
The Rfse of Cubisrn,
F.
Mme. Kar
by
in
h:
Troratoted
Edited bv Robert Moihefwsll
Edited by Robert (s^dtherwelL
others.
Pr*fo<]
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end Gefmc-
Bibliography by
Aiuiiology,
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I'.
artist for this pvblicotior*
with other *e/ts by A, Breton,

fbon.
ill.,
S.
$4.50.
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40
$3.
by Woi>ity Kon
Editioi"
Tronslofed from the French
done by the
woodcuts signed by the
of three originol
D^5;'i,iie5, T
'.lades:
1948.
ill.,
Monheim.
ond Poems, 1912-1947
Esjoys
Carolo Giediori-Welckei.
woodcuts, 48
C;
Edited t)y tjobello Athe.
and additions by Kondinsky, ?3pp.,
Edited by Robert Motherwell.
fay
Wohet
arigrnol tron-.
Robert Mthr*elL
by
Edited
Ironslated by Rolph
by .icon (Mons) Arp.
Iribution
ofB, Abii'O'-*
4th revijerf edition, 1947.
ill.,
end lycnel Feininger, ond o contribution by
with 2 woodcuts especially
.Modern Arts
Biirnord Karpol,
in
l.tbrifnr,ri
Review. A
Museum
Thf;
FtlUVism by Georu
i=ir$t
From Baudelaire
'''roblems of
n,,)i>;,-,:-H.n^--,v
i.,-<
$3.'J5.
$4.30.
Kondiliiicy, iulia
dinslcy,
inort'vr
kv
Vtid prinfing, 1947.
by Loui H. Sulliyan, with Other Wrilingi.
from the Germon by
by Robert Mothervr
.-.a
ill
Concerning the Spiritual in Art and Painting In Porticular,
Ojtertqg: prose
iJ.ii
Mon
,.'
i~.vr,.vo
rv!(Ki
$1.75.
hr,;i;-,v;..,j
Geimon by Dophna Hoffman. 92
Kindergarten Chats,
Mme.
ft
2nd
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Ertilcii
Tronilotion compiuieiy
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fief
i^-Tsi
!..
i3 pp., 2 color plalci, 7*
;'>î"-.^.v-rj^,.,.
-by i^'i-'
251 pp., 18 ;n., 1947.
19?.
Plastic Art, by
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'Ueunte
'<
TranslOfed from the French
36 pp., 12
addirional material.
th
Iniroductibn
d.m.a.
MofherwU)
(Oirecror: Rubrf
of
'
M,
tronslalion into E7'
to Surrealism by Marce'
Contemporary An
T, bemg a
p
-:
?orm
anfl sense, by Wolfgong Poolen.
the Gross Roots of

(he
pen.
(.
coreh-oll for texji relating to the immedloi
Way Beyond
Possibirtfiei?; 1.
'Art*;
and
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Voresff, Ban
iiiacfiveprc
ill.,
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2 color plates, 1948.
r.sibiiities:
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19
Colli,
.1.
m,
".;,.
Bciyer, bv
''>t>^
Cîio
;:,,;
r-
'horeau (orchi-
|ii^
!947-48.
Hoi'oi<;
Colv...
Pollock,
l!2 pp., 49
>'ainHngs, Sculptures, lêflntions, by

pp., 50
92 pp
An occosionol Review, edited by

(ort),
Out-of-p
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Architecture and Fine Arts

Digitized by the Internet Archive

2011 with funding from

IVIembers and Sloan Foundation

the rise of cubism

Art: Director: Robert Motherwell

publishers and the director of the series wish to express their

gratitude and indebtedness for aid

to the author, copyright holder of the original edition,

John Rewald, William

in the list of illustrations,

Lieberman, Curt Valentin, and Bernard Karpel.

translation into any language of the original

and published under the

Weg zum Kubismus"

(Munich, Delphin-Verlag, 1920).

Copyright, 1949, by Wittenborn, Schultz, Inc.

under international and Pan-American copyright conventions.

Published by Wittenborn, Schultz, Inc., 38 East 57th Street,

Preliminary Notice by Robert Motherwell

Writings by Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler

The Rise of Cubism:

The Essence of the New Painting. Lyricism of Form.

Forerunners: Cezanne and Derain

The Problem of Form.

Cubism, the Second Stage: The Piercing of the Closed

Form. The Problem of Color. Categories of Vision.

analysis, of the nature oj the aesthetic.

account of the cubists' experiments by a

man who was

has reflected on their achievement

all his life.

solution that they

Written as early as 1915, this boot{

worked toward; tvhen

the story of the

porarily, of centuries of naturalistic representation. Since then the struggle to be free

and man's insight

increases, the distance be-

cubism started inamood of

has been inherited by

herent in the cubist enterprise

this derives its

before an objective problem. This morality

pressionism, which asserts the dominance of the

indirect opposition to ex-

about the forms of painting, though they scarcely transformed at

probably in a purely intuitive tvay, of modern science; and

in their studios they

sential steps. Nevertheless the cubists' painting

and pierced the

cubism snapped traditional

thought and feeling

stubbornness and objectivity , they stumbled

tuith great intelligence,

reflect the tvorld

call subjective process.

over the leading insight of the 20th century,^

them and the world

what we tvould notv

in igog or igio Picass o toot{

ivere led directly to the subjective

their insight did not