Topic > Pablo Picasso and Analytical and Synthetic Cubism

An artistic style unlike any other. An artistic style that has continued to influence others for generations to come. It was the path to the artistic movements that defined the century, such as surrealism, abstract expressionism and pop art. It also pioneered similar movements in both music and literature. The innovative movement aimed to establish a new order in the world of painting and sculpture, completely different from any style or technique that had existed up to that time. Cubism was perhaps the most influential artistic movement of the 20th century as it led to the exploration of more abstract concepts and philosophies; abstractionism was a fundamental part of 20th century art. Despite being so influential, Cubism was influenced by the artistic movements of the past and the need to move forward. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Cubism didn't just appear out of nowhere, there was a reason why it came into being. Which is why Picasso and Braque strove to find something new. They felt the need to expand their perspective, to extend the possibilities of art in much the same way that the advent of new technologies was extending the possibilities of society. The world was changing dramatically, the pace of life and the way society perceived the nature of time, everything was changing. Society was now in a constant state of change with new scientific discoveries, technological advances and mobility. The company's horizons broadened more and more. The dilemma facing the modern artist was simple; how to represent the dynamic lifestyle of the contemporary world. Particularly for painters, the problem of how to capture not just the fleeting moment, but how to capture the current. This led Picasso to reject the inherited concept that art should copy nature or adopt traditional techniques of perspective, modeling and foreshortening. Pablo Picasso's first Cubist painting, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, had broken all the traditional rules that artists had followed, especially the one that defined art as imitation rather than creation. Picasso had abandoned all concepts of perspective and proportion, concepts practiced religiously since the Renaissance. What Picasso did instead was depict objects as a combination of many different viewpoints to create the illusion of painting from multiple perspectives at once. With his revolutionary idea, Picasso created a new concept for future artists: the freedom to create rather than imitate. Picasso believed that perspective was an obstacle to progress. Drawing from only one point of view would limit the options. Because the painting was made from a fixed point of view, the result was frozen, captured in time. Photography could achieve the same effect, in less time and at lower cost. The values ​​of traditional painting were being challenged by new emerging technology. Picasso believed that painting should also evolve, overcome the constraints of perspective and proportions. Art had to go beyond the realistic representation of objects. What he wanted to show was the process of seeing and, to do so, he composed a mixture of several simultaneous visions of the objects to be seen at a single moment. This is a key feature of Cubist art: the attempt to show all six sides of a cube at once. Picasso was also largely influenced by African tribal art. He believed that the traditions of Western art had outlived their usefulness and were long gone.