Duchamp, Coffee Mill, 1911.
Oil and pencil on cardboard, 33 × 12.7 cm.
Tate Modern, London.
The first general exhibition of Cubism, when its adepts had become more numerous, took place in 1911 at the Indépendants where Room 41, reserved for the Cubists, produced a profound impression. Here were seen the skilful and seductive works of Jean Metzinger; landscapes, Male Nude and the Femme aux Phlox (Woman with Phlox) by Albert Gleizes; Portrait of Mme. Fernande × and Young Girls by Mlle. Marie Laurencin; Eiffel Tower by Robert Delaunay, L’Abondance by Le Fauconnier, Nudes in the Forest by Fernand Léger.
The first foreign exhibition of the Cubists was held in Brussels in the same year, and in the preface of the catalogue to this exhibition I accepted, in the name of the exhibitors, the appellation Cubism, and Cubist.
At the close of the year 1911, the exhibition of Cubists at the Salon d’Autumne made a considerable noise; ridicule was spared neither Gleizes (Hunting, Portrait of Jacques Nayral) nor Metzinger (Tea Time (Woman with a Teaspoon)), nor Fernand Léger. A new painter, Marcel Duchamp, and a sculptor architect, Duchamp-Villon, were added to the group.
Other collective exhibitions took place in November of 1911, at the gallery of Contemporary Art, rue Tronchet, Paris; in 1912 the Salon des Indépendants was marked by the advent of Juan Gris. At Barcelona, in the month of May, Spain received the young Frenchman with enthusiasm. Finally in June, at Rouen, at an exhibition organised by the Society of Norman Artists, the advent of Francis Picabia was hailed by the new school.
That which differentiates Cubism from the old schools of painting is that it is not an art of painting, but an art of conception which tends to rise to that of creation.
In representing the concept of reality, or the created reality, the painter can give the appearance of three dimensions, he can, so to speak, cube it. He cannot do this in rendering simply the reality as seen, unless he makes use of an illusion either in perspective or foreshortening which deforms the quality of the form conceived or created.
In Cubism, as I have analysed it, four tendencies have manifested themselves, of which two are parallel and pure.
Scientific Cubism is one of the pure tendencies. It is the art of painting new ensembles with elements borrowed, not from the reality of vision, but from the reality of consciousness. Every man has the perception of this inner reality. It is not necessary, for example, to be a man of culture to conceive of a round form.
The geometrical aspect which so vividly impressed those who saw the first scientific canvases came from the fact that the essential reality was given with great purity and that the visual accidents and anecdotes had been eliminated.
Pablo Picasso, The Aficionado (The Bullfighter), 1912.
Oil on canvas, 135 × 82 cm.
Kunstmuseum, Basel.
Georges Braque, Still-Life with a Violin, 1911.
Oil on canvas, 130 × 89 cm.
Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges-Pompidou, Paris.
Robert Delaunay, Paris, 1910–1912.
Oil on canvas, 267 × 406 cm.
Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges-Pompidou, Paris.
Albert Gleizes, The Soccer Players, 1912–1913.
Oil on canvas, 225.4 × 183 cm.
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D. C.
The painters who follow this school are: Picasso (although his luminous art belongs also to the other pure tendency of Cubism), Georges Braque, Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Mlle. Laurencin, and Juan Gris.
Physical Cubism is the art of painting new ensembles, with elements borrowed mostly from the reality of vision. This art is derived, nevertheless, from the constructive discipline of Cubism. It has a great future in the history of painting. Its social role is well marked, but it is not a pure art. It confuses the subject with its aspects. Le Fauconnier is the physical Cubist painter who created this tendency.
Orphic Cubism is the other great tendency of Modern Painting.
The last pictures and aquarelles of Cézanne belong to Cubism, but Courbet is the father of the new painters, and André Derain to whom I shall presently return, was the eldest of this best beloved sons, for he originated the movement of the Fauves who were a sort of prelude to the Cubists, and he also led the great subjective movement.
It would be too difficult however to write clearly today of a man who voluntarily holds himself aloof from everybody and everything.
The Modern School seems to me the most audacious that has ever been. It has put the question of beauty to itself. It wishes to visualise beauty disengaged from the pleasure that man causes man and, since the dawn of historic times, no European artist has dared to do that. The new artists must have an ideal beauty which will no longer be merely the proud expression of the species, but the expression of the universe, in so far as it has been humanised in the light. It is the art of painting new ensembles with elements not borrowed from visual realities, but created entirely by the artist and endowed by him with a powerful reality.
The works of the Orphic artists must present simultaneously a pure aesthetic charm, a construction which strikes beneath the surface and a sublime significance – that is to say, the subject. It is pure art.
The light from the works of Picasso contains this art, which Robert Delaunay invents on his side and for which Fernand Léger, Francis Picabia and Marcel Duchamp also strive.
Instinctive Cubism, the art of painting new ensembles borrowed not from visual reality but from suggestions made to the artist by instinct and intuition, has long tended to orphism. The instinctive artists lack lucidity and artistic faith. Instinctive Cubism includes a very great number of artists. It sprang from French Impressionism, and now this movement extends all over Europe.
The art of today clothes its creations with an imposing and monumental aspect, which surpasses in this respect everything that has been conceived by the artists of our age. Ardent in pursuit of beauty, it is noble, energetic, and the reality which it brings us is marvellously clear.
I love the art of today because above all else I love the light, and all men love light – above all else Man invented fire.
Jean Metzinger, The Blue Bird, 1913.
Oil on canvas, 250 × 193 cm.
Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris.
Pablo Picasso, Bust of a Woman (study for Les Demoiselles d’Avignon), 1907.
Oil on canvas, 66 × 59 cm.
Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre
