The Art Movements of

20 Century
th

►Cubism
►Futurism
►Surrealism
►Constructivism
 Cubism

► pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, that revolutionized European painting and
sculpture, and inspired related movements in music and literature.
► Cubism represented a break with the painterly tradition since the Renaissance. The object
was not represented in the central perspective but rather was deconstructed into prismatic
surfaces, simultaneously representing different perspectives on the canvas. This formal
analysis reduced what was depicted to geometric elements, similar to the relationship
between words and syntax.
 Cubism
► In cubist artworks, objects are broken up, analyzed, and re-assembled in
an abstracted form—instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the
artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the
subject in a greater context. Often the surfaces intersect at seemingly
random angles, removing a coherent sense of depth. The background and
object planes interpenetrate one another to create the shallow ambiguous
space, one of cubism's distinct characteristics.

Juan Gris, Still Life with Fruit Juan Gris, Portrait of Picasso,
Dish and Mandolin, 1919, 1912
How did Cubism change the way we see the world?

► Flat colour – no illusion of 3D

by using shading or tonal
modelling
► Objects painted from different
angles
► Complex interlocking shapes
create feelings of tension &
anxiety in viewer
► Vertical or diagonal plane lines
disrupt the composition
► Details are edited out =
simplify, select & modify from
nature
 Cubism
Analytical Cubism
► "analyzed" natural forms and reduced the forms into basic geometric parts
on the two-dimensional picture plane.
► Color was almost non-existent except for the use of a monochromatic
scheme that often included grey, blue and ochre.

Pablo Picasso, Le guitariste, Portrait of Daniel-Henry

1910, Kahnweiler, 1910,
 Cubism
Synthetic Cubism
► was developed by Picasso, Braque, Juan Gris and others between 1912 and 1919.
► Synthetic cubism is characterized by the introduction of different textures, surfaces,
collage elements, papier collé and a large variety of merged subject matter.
► It was the beginning of collage materials being introduced as an important
ingredient of fine art work.

Pablo Picasso, Three

Musicians (1921), Juan Gris, Bottle of Banylus
 Cubism
Whereas Analytic Cubism was an analysis of the subjects (pulling them apart into
planes), Synthetic Cubism is more of a pushing of several objects together. Less
pure than Analytic Cubism, Synthetic Cubism has fewer planar shifts (or
schematism), and less shading, creating flatter space.

Juan Gris, Still Life with Glass

Juan Gris, Still Life with Glass
Pablo Picasso, Ma Jolie
Futurism
 Futurism

► an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century.
► its most influential personality was the Italian writer Filippo Tommaso Marinetti.
► The Futurists admired speed, technology,
► youth and violence, the car, the airplane and the industrial city, all that represented
the technological triumph of humanity over nature, and they were passionate
nationalists.
 Futurism
► the promoters of futurism were concerned primarily with expressing movement and
mechanical speed, which they saw as essential determinants of modernity.

Umberto Boccioni, Unique Forms

of Continuity in Space, 44 x 35 x
16 in, bronze, 1913, two views
Boccioni, Development of a Bottle in Space, 1912, silvered bronze, 15” high, MoMA NYC
(right) Boccioni, Table + Bottle + House, 1912, pencil on paper
Boccioni, Antigraceful, 1913, cast 1950-51, bronze, Height: 23”, Metropolitan MA, NY
compare: (center) Picasso, Head of Fernande, 1909, and
Medardo Rosso, Concierge (La Portinaia), 1883/84, brown wax over plaster, 14“ high
 Futurism

► The best-known early projects of futurist architecture are

Antonio Sant’Elia’s and Mario Chiatone’s urban experiments
exhibited in Milan in 1914.
► The spatial relationships of the city fabric were determined in
the first place by an elaborate system of monumental arteries
distributed hierarchically through and underneath huge
“streamlined” skyscrapers
Antonio Sant’Elia (Italian 1888-1916), Train and plane station (left)
and power plant for Futurist Città Nuovo, 1914, ink on paper
 Futurism

Umberto Boccioni, The City Rises (1910)

An example of Futurist
architecture by Antonio
Sant'Elia
Umberto Boccioni
States of Mind: Those Who Go 1911

Umberto Boccioni
‘Elasticity’, 1912