Cubism.—Cezanne had used colour in block form because, by that he could best express his feeling for the weight of whatever he depicted, and its relation to other things presented with it, but he kept to the accepted ideas of representation, which were discarded by his cubist followers, Picasso, Braque, Derain and Leger, who evolved a new language from Cezanne's sugges tion of space. It was a form of art that had nothing whatever to do with realism, and demanded concentration on aesthetic matters to the absolute exclusion of outside practical appearances and accepted canons of judgment. Cubism bears out Ruskin's theory that an artist may deny other truths to the end that one truth may be more apparent.
Like impressionism, the name "cubism" was first used in a derogatory sense ; it was Henri Matisse who, in 1908, applied it to a painting in which the subject had received treatment of a markedly cubical character. About as far from the impressionist objective approach as anything could possibly be, cubism is really a stride—albeit a long stride, beyond the subjective outlook of the post-impressionists, in that it takes no heed of visual appearance, and renders what are thought to be essential realities in pure abstract form. Picasso, the most prominent follower of the cubist gospel, and, indeed, the creator of certain of its elements, is the exponent of scientific cubism in its purest sense. Another form of cubism, less pure, is that which is best described as physical, since its fundamentals are culled from visualized realities.
For example, in those of Picasso's works which are based on physical appearances, the objects are presented in a way at least sufficiently realistic to enable their perception by the ordinary beholder, although he may be at a loss to account for the shapes which they assume. Their recognition, incidentally, at once dis places the work from the category of cubism in its strict sense, for that entails matters of line and colour wholly unrelated to objects and figures, since the cult does not intend realism to enter into the question.
Braque stands, to some extent, as the codifier of Picasso's inven tions, acting as an editor of his snipe-like movements. Thus, the products of Picasso are sobered down and reduced to a state of uncompromising logic before being handed on as standardized material.
The art of Fernand Leger is concentrated upon the mechanical age into which we are advancing. Working in the gay colours of contemporary life, he extracts excellent design from the solid strength of the mechanized world by which he finds himself en veloped.
Albert Gleizes is a devotee of two-dimensional treatment, and his attitude to a flat surface is that it has no need of the addition of a sculptural third, for the presence of such constitutes a denial of its very nature. This painter, too, does not regard painting as a
form of representation, but of presentation of the spirit of the artist, and not of physical matter. Metzinger, Herbin and Lhote are others of the cubist persuasion, which has demanded, in its time, every conceivable form of liberty. Orphism, purism, syn chronism, simultaneism, integralism, dadaism and numeralism, all have had their day, and now the parent bids fair to follow them into oblivion. But although cubism may prove to have been a blind alley, it has been, and still is, an invaluable discipline for artists in general and had its definite use in saving art from the rut of academic pedantry.
Futurism.—Italian futurism, initiated, heralded and extolled by the eloquent poet Marinetti, and practised by Boccioni, Severini, Carra, Russolo, Balla, and other disciples of the founder, was really an offshoot of cubism, although the connection was not admitted in the futurist manifestos. It differs from cubism in so far as cubism is concerned with static conditions, whilst futurism is essentially dynamic. This dynamism aims at cinematographic effects, oblivious of the impossibility of creating on a flat surface the illusion of the sequence of movement. Thus, by depicting a horse with 20 legs in various positions to indicate the movement of the gallop, the futurist endeavours to express the action of the gallop, but does not get beyond the representation of a static horse with 20 legs. Any attempt to change an art of space into an art of time must needs prove abortive. The dynamic intention of the futurists also finds expression in "force-lines," that is to say in lines, radiating, swirling, wedge-shaped, to indicate either the direction of movement, or the manner in which objects would disintegrate in obedience to the force indicated by their form.
Another tenet of futurism denies the validity of the resem blance of a portrait to the sitter. To the futurist, a painting of one object covered by another in such a manner that both are visible, is a method of indicating his total disbelief in opacity, whilst a dozen people can be, at the same time, and in turn, ten, three, five in number, as well as simultaneously mobile and im mobile. Paintings of a box, firmly shut but at the same time dis closing its contents, also are admissible. Pictures must be looked, not at, but through, and the spectator must feel himself to be in the midst of them.