Task 1b - 250 Word Illustrated Pieces

For task 1b, I was asked to create 2 250 word illustrated pieces, one on 'Cubism' and the other on 'Futurism'

Cubism 250 word illustrated piece:

‘Cubism’ was an art movement which took place from the year 1907 to the year 1914. This art movement was revolutionary and it could be said that cubism came about because of photography. This is because when Kodak released their first camera, ‘The Brownie’ in 1900, this made photography easy and possible for everyone, including children. As Kodak had now made photography available to the masses, this meant that there was less need for artists to pain realistically to capture a moment as this could now be done by everyone with cameras and artists were now free to express themselves however they wished through their artworks. This meant that artists work began to change from being realistic and capturing a moment to more expressive and abstract.

There are two different types of cubism, these are analytical cubism and synthetic cubism. Analytical cubism consists of various images of the same subject matter from different angles and viewpoints being placed together to create the final image. This means that a three dimensional object is shown to its fullest potential on a two dimensional canvas. In contrast to this, synthetic cubism consists of a combination of different objects placed together to create an abstract overall piece.

‘factory, Horta de Ebbo’ is an analytical cubist piece created by Pablo Picasso in 1909. This is a painting of a landscape including a factory and palm trees. The colours in this painting are reasonably bright and quite unrealistic in the sense that all of the geometric shapes that create the image are filled in using blocks of colour which would not necessarily be the colours which would naturally occur. This is an example of a typically cubist image as it has been created using geometric shapes filled with colour. The use of geometric shaped means that this landscape image lacks depth which is a key part of cubist work as the intention of cubism is not to portray a three dimensional image in its original three dimensions, but to show it in a two dimensional way without the illusion of depth. The use of geometric shames in this image also give the illusion of the artwork being ‘broken’ into pieces, this is another of the main characteristics of cubist art.

Futurism 250 word illustrated piece:

Task 1b

Futurism 250 word illustrated piece:

Futurism is a distinctive art movement which took place in Italy beginning in 1911. It appears that futurism was inspired by the art movement ‘cubism’. This could be said as the futurist movement followed the cubist movement and the abstract element is present within art works from each of the movements. However, futurism does differ from cubism in quite a few ways, one of which being that futurism focus’ on the movement of an object. Image manipulation is such as overlaying images several times is used a lot in in the work of futurist artists. Futurist artworks ain to get across the motion and movement of the objects captured within the images. This means that colour, line and shape become very important throughout the work of futurist artists. The main themes running through the work from futurist artists include power, speed and matters of industrial nature.

The futurist art movement was about more than just art though. The main artists during this art movement (Boccioni, Balla, Severini and others) all signed a manifesto setting out their ideas. This manifesto not only explained the ideas of speed and power throughout the art pieces, but it also glorified violence and war. The manifesto, written by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, included passages such as “we intend to sing the love of danger, the habit of energy and fearless” and “we will glorify war – the worlds only hygiene- militarism, patriotism the destructive gesture of the freedom bringers, beautiful idea worth dying for and the scorn of women” and this was published in the Italian newspaper ‘Gazzetta dell’Emilia’ in Bologna on February 5^th 1909 then in the French newspaper ‘Le Figaro’ on February 20^th of the same year. This meant that a large number of people saw and were able to read this manifesto. Because of this the futurist art movement had a large social impact as the views and beliefs written were very strong and not everybody would have agreed with them meaning opinions were undoubtedly split.

One of the most influential futurist artists was Umberto Boccioni. He was a painter, sculptor and theorist of the futurist art movement meaning he was deeply involved in this movement.  

‘The city rises’ is a painting by Umberto Boccioni. This painting by Umberto Boccioni shows the residents of a city and two horses out in the streets of a bustling city. This is a typically futurist art piece as the subject is slightly blurred suggesting the movement of the horses and people in the painting. The two horses in this painting suggest strength and power, these are two of the main characteristics of futurist art. In addition to this, the colour red is quite dominant throughout this painting, this could suggest the anger and violence which is apparent within the futurist manifesto.