Dimensions in Cubism

 The study of dimensions, or planes, extends into geometry, topology, metaphysics, physics, and in today’s specific case, art. Defined as:  “a magnitude that, independently or in conjunction with other such magnitudes, serves to define the location of an element within a given set, as of a point on a line, an object in a space, or an event in space-time”, dimensions are essential to understanding and interpreting space. Space can be represented in several ways. Whether it be a tangible, physical, or materialistic representation of a space, or an intangible, abstract, metaphysical representation of space, it exists. Seen or unseen, it is filled and defined by different dimensions. In this particular collection of paintings and drawings, we perceive several different dimensions and planes occurring on two dimensional picture planes, yet only physically implied through either brush stroke or pencil. In such an occurrence, the historic period of art known as cubism was brought into existence.

            Cubism was first founded and created in Paris by the French artist, Georges Braque and his friend, a Spanish artist, Pablo Picasso during the early twentieth century. In an act of defiance against the popular belief that art should copy nature, Braque and Picasso, began creating works that rejected such traditionally and widely accepted concepts of perspective, shadow, or foreshortening.

            This commenced the birth of a new visual language in art that continues to be celebrated and known as a means of understanding space that is trademarked by the spacial conversation it creates creates through implied dimensions and planes within a said space.  Emphasizing the two dimensionality of the canvas, Cubism exaggerates and abstracts objects into fragments, planes, and distorts the viewer’s sense of understandable space made within the borders of the canvas. In these works, we see how artists continue to follow the multiple sub-styles made after Cubism, and their similar technique of leading the viewer through its irrational composition and its physical and metaphysical dimensions into a new sense of space.

The Studio (Vase before a Window)

In Georges Braque’s The Studio (Vase before a Window), Oil mixed with sand on canvas, 1939, Braque brings elements of something similar to a puzzle, or collage, in the abstraction of this painting of his studio. Creating a narrative through the expression of opposing dimensions and planes, the viewer is taken into a new sense of space that is not necessarily rational, but a new sense of space is experienced, nonetheless.  Braque renders the forms in this piece in such a way that when closely observed, they are structurally irrational. Braque creates this still life closely following the themes commonly found and created in Cubism by rejecting the traditional concepts of perspective and art copying nature by the juxtaposition and contortion of the objects in his painting.

(Accession Number: 1993.400.6)

The Café Terrace

In this piece, The Café Terrace, by artist Diego Rivera, 1915, Oil on canvas, several non-cohesive planes occur that fall into the category of cubism. This piece successfully leads the viewer through its composition into a new sense of space, primarily physically. The viewer is put in front of the canvas looking at a still life of a bottle interacting with a table suggesting the bottle is resting on the table, however the dimensions implied by the artist tell the viewer this space is irrational. Also implied is another dimension, the intangible kind. Referenced in this painting, is a camouflage tablecloth, and a powerful drink that both directly reference themes found in WWI.

Accession Number: 49.70.51 

Hammamet with Its Mosque

In this painting, Hammamet with Its Mosque, Artist: Paul Klee, 1914, Watercolor and graphite on paper mounted on cardboard, a new medium of watercolor references the same style, or expression of space as most cubist pieces do as well. Interpreted into different geometric shapes and varying colors, this painting leads its viewer through its composition in a non-traditional manner. Reading this piece by its use of color is pertinent to interpreting this space well since it has less dimensionality due to its flat medium, unlike other cubist pieces in this collection.

Accession Number: 1984.315.4

Checkerboard and Playing Cards

The artist Juan Gris, paints this piece in Paris, during 1915 on cream-colored woven paper mounted to paperboard with gouache, graphite, and resin. In this painting, popular Cubist themes appear such as dice, newspaper, and liquor. Set up in a perplexing planar composition, understanding this piece and its visual language can be approached as other paintings in this collection. Made with the intent of emphasizing the two dimensionality of the canvas and the multiple incoherent dimensions implied within this still life, we can understand this space in the category of cubism.

Bottle and Wine Glass on a Table

The artist Pablo Picasso, creates this piece in 1912 out of charcoal, ink, cut and pasted newspaper, and graphite on paper. Here we see one of the founders of Cubism translate space in a simple, clean way involving a medium not yet seen in this collection. Yet again, we see similar reoccurring themes of cubism in the technique of collage, referenced by the newspaper we see in this piece that makes up part of the bottle. Several different planes that are observed to be interacting with several different implied dimensions, yet cohesively emphasizing the two dimensionality of the paper at the same time. An aspect we see occur in all of this collection, and an aspect that challenges the viewers sense of understood space and makes the viewer see and think in several different dimensions, whether implied or physically stated.

Accession Number: 49.70.33