Cubism & the Cubist Movement
Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque...
The hermetic works are complicated geometric structures and such works are consequently difficult to understand. The viewer needs to be able to piece the painting together, Braque instructed
It's all the same to me whether a form represents a different thing to different people or many things at the same time
and claimed that some of the forms
Have no literal meaning whatsoever
The portrait of Ambroise Vollard has many details which are illegible or missing. Ambroise Vollard had been Paul Cezanne's dealer in his later years, and in 1901 he put together a show of work by Picasso and a Basque artist, Francisco Iturrino, a long association between Vollard and Picasso began. Vollard bought many of his works including a group of sculptures and a 'Head of a Women'.
The portrait of Vollard started in the spring of 1910, and was not finished until the autumn of that same year. The portrait dragged on for months, as Vollard was dissatisfied with the painting. Many sittings passed until Vollard was thoroughly pleased with the work. Paul Cezanne also painted a portrait of Vollard in 1899 and had to rework and rework the painting until Vollard was pleased. The portrait is broken up into many facet's, the background and Vollard's torso merge into one. The contrast of bright colours and detail bring out the Head and face.
The development of hermetic cubism continued Into 1911 with both Picasso and Braque spending several months in Ceret. The majority of the paintings of 1911 are still life or single figures, often with musical instruments, typographical elements become common, Sometimes from newspaper names and headlines. Braque went down to the South of France between July and September of 1911 and started to paint new studies, this period was also very productive for Picasso too. While in the South of France Braque painted 'Women Reading'. ' Women Reading' compared to 'Women with Mandolin' is a lot more difficult to read. The figure is set on a complicated background of black lines creating a work' parallel to reality'. Braque explained in 1910
I couldn't portray a women in all her natural loveliness. I haven't the skill. No one has. I must, therefore create a new sort of beauty, the beauty that appears to me in terms of volume, of line, of mass, of weight
Hermetic Cubism had been put to its limits so, by 1912 Picasso and Braque after experimenting with several different ideas came up with the idea of paper collage and papier colle. Papier Colle became a means of representation, pieces of paper and other objects could be used in the same way as paint, building up layers. Papier Colle became an easier way of creating illusionary paintings, distance could easily be represented by placing layers of paper over top of each other.