Expert: Ben Mahmoud - 2/23/2008

Question
When producing cubism art, what do you use (pencil, paints, oil ect.)

Answer
This is an interesting question.  The truth is that one can use any media.  There are cubists paintings in oil paint.  Here is a web address where you can view a number of oil paintings by artists working in the cubist genre.  I think you can just click on the link, and it will take you to the page.

http://images.google.com/images?q=cubist+painting&hl=en&rlz=1B2GGGL_enUS208US209...

There are, also, cubist pencil drawings.  In fact, Pablo Picasso (who may be thought of as the "inventor" of Cubism) did untold numbers of drawings. There are several books available that contain reproductions of Picasso's drawings.

There are many Cubists' works done in the medium of print-making.  There are lithographs, etchings, dry points, and mono-prints in the style of Cubism.

There are a number of early Cubist's works that were done in a medium that was invented by Picasso and George Braque.  It was the medium of collage.  The term, "collage," literally means pasted papers.  Here is a site that shows two of Picasso's collages:

http://www.kmtspace.com/picasso-Two.htm

On this same page are some sculptures by Picasso that belong to his Cubist period.

These collages contain pasted fragments as well as drawing and painting.  It was truly a mixed-media affair.  Here is a site where you can view some of Braque's collages:

So, you can see that the media that one uses does not define Cubism.  It is the underlying ideas and their artistic manifestations that define Cubism.

Let me tell you how it all got started:  Picasso was working on a very large painting in the Rose Period style.  It was an image of 5 women.  As he was working on the painting, an artist friend (Maurice Vlamink) came into Picasso's studio carrying some tribal masks from Africa.  At this time such things were not shown in art museums, but in natural history museums.  Picasso was so taken by the look of the masks that he began to re-draw the painting, using the look and forms from the masks.  Go to this site to see what he ended up with:

http://www.moma.org/collection/conservation/demoiselles/index.html

If you look at the faces of the women, from left to right, you see the progress of integration with the painting that Picasso developed.  This painting is credited with beginning the genre called Cubism.

I do hope that I have been of some help to you.

Best wishes, Ben Mahmoud



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