The chief members of the conspiracy were, besides Picasso, Georges Braque, Albert Gleizes, Jean Metzinger, Juan Gris, Fer nand Leger. They made their debut about 191o.
The principles of the movement were, amusingly enough, sup posed to derive from the paintings of Cezanne. That painter had died in 1906, so that his child, born four years later, was too posthumous for its parentage to be entirely above suspicion.
The only artist who has emerged from Cubism and actually derived something from it, is Georges Braque. One does not, of course, count Picasso, to whom Cubism were merely one of many incidents. Braque, definitely influenced by Cubism, has evolved an art of design, which is derived from nature, although it takes liberties with its subject, and is harmonious and complete in it self. Some years later there was an aftermath in which the man nerisms of Cubism were imitated without any reference to their supposed utility. So there appeared on the market, angular, dis torted, outlined paintings by such men as Marcoussis, La Fres naye, Herbin, Picabia and Filla.
Futurism.—In 1911, the art world, scarcely recovered from the birth of Cubism, was compelled to submit to the onslaught of a new movement, originating this time from Italy. It was known as Futurism, chiefly because the impressions of the immediate past were involved in its productions. Its conception was mainly due to the exuberance of the hysterical poet F. T. Marinetti, who had issued his first nianifesto at Turin in 191o. He organised an exhibition in 1911 of a group which consisted of Umberto Boc cioni, Carlo Carra, Giacomo Balla, Luigi Russolo and Gino Sev erini. It was, according to its creator, a species of plastic dy namics, but it was nothing more than instinct become self conscious. It reviled and repudiated old and petrified art.
"The simultaneousness of states of the soul at a given moment (that is, the moment of producing a picture) is the basis and end of our art." In painting, for example, a person on a balcony, the Futurist painted not only the scene actually before him, but the feelings engendered in him by the happenings in the street and also the emotions left in his mind by the happenings of the night before.
Obviously such an art, founded on confusion, had in itself the germs of the ridiculous.
It had a brief and laughter-provoking career, its entrance almost synchronising with its exit. Although its origin was really Italian (it had something full-blooded and lacking in reason, for eign to the French nature) it made its debut on the Parisian stage before coming to London, where it made a bright and brief ap pearance at the Sackville Gallery and where an entertaining dinner was given to Signor Marinetti.
Symbolists, Synthesists and Eclecticists.—Af ter Futurism a group of artists of already proved ability were associated in a movement which has been called Symbolism, Synthesism and Eclecticism. Their aim was to fuse naturalism with the idealistic tradition of the museum, that is, to serve up realism in a classical form ; to see contemporary life through the eyes of the past. It involved discipline and imitation and was, in effect, realism lim ited by pastiche. The idea attracted many artists, some of whom have developed some definitely personal style from it, such as Gauguin and Andre Derain. Other artists of renown who fol lowed the movement were Maurice Denis, Emil Besnard, Odilon Redon, K. X. Roussel, Felix Valloton. Many younger artists were attracted and, naturally, individual preferences among the classi cal painters were followed. Favory followed Rubens, Alix and Georg were inspired by Daumier; Friesz was haunted by his remembrance of Poussin and Delacroix.
.Modigliani, a charming artist who died young, painted figures in strange and frequently distorted poses. Dufy, Dufrenoy, Fre laut, etc., had their preferences.
Intimistes.--The Intimistes formed a small group but hardly a movement. They chose simpler subjects of ordinary life and painted them, as it were, for their own sake. They included Charles Cottet, painter of the life of Breton fisher folk; J. E. Blanche, an intimate portrait and genre painter; Le Sidaner, painter of scenes of village and town life, mostly under artificial light, Prinet, who painted incidents of home life, and also Rene Menard, Ernest Laurent and others.