Marinetti's Parolibero, 1915
Dear class, we covered lots of early Twentieth Century themes: Cubism (analytic and synthetic), Collage, Plakatstil, 1920s America, Great War in posters, Paul Klee, DADA, Fehmy Agha, Juan Gris, Designing Modernity, Cubofuturism (Malevich), Neoplasticism, Depero's dynamo... (remember, no echo chamber)
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This week I researched the fascinating movement of Cubism, which began to take off as a concept in the early 20th century. Beginning with Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in 1907, Cubism is the idea of moving away from traditional techniques such as perspective, modeling, and foreshortening. Breaking down objects into geometric shapes created a new unique format that shows multiple viewpoints simultaneously. There are two different forms of this artistic phase. The first, from 1908-1912, is called Analytical Cubism. This is the more serious phase, using browns, greys, and earthy tones to direct attention to the structure of the piece rather than the color. The second phase started around 1912, with the introduction of brighter colors and simpler shapes and the addition of collage elements that integrated textures and patterns. Both phases represent an inspiring art form that I have loved to experiment with on my own time, as I feel it allows the creative mind to truly expand!
In our recent class, the topic of cubism was covered with an emphasis on figures such as Pablo Picasso and Juan Gris. What I find interesting about Gris’s work is the artist’s methodological approach behind it, which contrasts the more chaotic styles of Picasso and Braque. His pieces feel almost as though they could be built in real life, with their clean lines and structured, somewhat architectural forms. This clarity and attention to detail within the compositions make the abstractions appear purposeful, as if each shape is contributing to a larger whole. Gris’s approach is strengthened with his use of everyday objects. By incorporating items such as newspapers, bottles, sketchbooks, and dishes, Gris is bridging the gap between the abstract world and the real one. By adding these elements his artwork becomes tangible even to those who refuse to understand abstract art, it is this blend of order and reality that makes Gris’s cubist pieces so special.
Paul Klee’s artistic style embodies a sense of carelessness reminiscent to the way kids draw when they’re unbothered by whether their art looks “good” or not. His honest nature and knowledge of the power in unfiltered art is understood through rough lines, uneven colors, strange symbols, and asymmetry. By using people with psychological disorders as subjects in his drawings, he emphasized the hard aspects of real life that often go unnoticed. Klee’s art was rebelliously abstract, and misunderstood, rejected by the 1920s mainstream idea of what “good” art looks like. His wasn’t conventionally beautiful, but it exemplified his raw creativity and the impact it has to demonstrate emotion. Like the Beggarstaffs, he used doodles and simple sketches not because he lacked technique. Instead, he saw great meaning in complex simplicity.
In today’s world, it’s common for the things we create to be shown in its most polished and perfect form. Wouldn’t it be cool if we were to abide by Paul Klee’s mindset of “simplicity speaking louder than perfection” more often in our everyday lives? Being proud of the way our work, personalities, and minds may be imperfect, messy, and even a little weird, by emphasizing it. Authentic, real, human representation to me is more beautiful than the calculated, thought out way of living that Klee’s mark challenged.
I find cubism cool. Before Cubism, art was all about realism and perspective. Cubist artists like Juan Gris ask, “What if we don’t try to make things look real?" And they do so in the most surreal ways. They show an utter matsery over art by breaking alomost all its conventinal rules, making something that both has the stylistic appeal of a child doodling and scribbling on a page, but just with the expertise of a proffesional artitsts. They break all conventional rules of shading. lighting, line art, compostion, etc, and yet the outcome is entirely purposeful and creative. They 'break' art to make art, and thats awesome.
Specifically in regards to Juan Gris, the cubist portraits of an already surreal cubist artist like Picasso adds a sense of legacy and history to the artform. Not only was Juan's art a cubist masterpeice, but its a cubist masterpeice depicting aqnother cubist artist. His art was both creative and fun, but meta and unique in such a way where it carried with it a long history of cubism.
I have always heard of the DADA art movement, but I never quite understood what exactly "DADA" means. Defining DADA as "anything goes" is very descriptive as DADA can quite literally be anything. DADA art is usually out of the ordinary and against what societal standards find popular or appealing, it is the "rebel" phase of art. People turned urinals, bicycle wheels, and random face collages into an art piece (the only thing that actually classified it as art, was it was in a gallery or exhibit).
Although DADA was most popular from 1916 to 1920, I believe it is still heavily prevalent into today's society. When producing art today I find a lot of people tend to go for deeper meanings, but they usually oppose the standards of our society or talk about the "unusual". DADA art was revolutionary as it literally turned around what we define as meaningful art.
During class, Amédée Ozenfant’s work instantly caught my attention, I genuinely love his art. There’s something deeply satisfying about the way he uses shape, color, and flatness to create compositions that feel simple yet incredibly refined. His work is clean and structured. The balance between geometric forms and soft, muted color palettes gives his pieces a harmonious and thoughtful quality that I find truly inspiring. One of my favorite works is Nature morte au pichet et à la guitare. I find it especially interesting that you can see the brushstrokes in the color fields, adding a tactile quality to the otherwise flat surface. The inclusion of a guitar immediately reminded me of Juan Gris, who also explored similar still life subjects during the Cubist movement. His minimalist style avoids unnecessary detail yet still draws the viewer in through strong visual rhythm and compositional balance. His art proves that simplicity and clean design can be powerful.
DADA is my absolute least favorite art movement. More specifcally im not a fan of Marcel Duchamp. I’ve never liked Marcel Duchamp or his so-called “art.” To me, it feels like a mockery of what true art really is—timeless paintings, intricate bronze and marble statues, not urinals with signatures. DADA as a movement seems absurd and unserious. Still, I admire Duchamp in a strange way—his defiance and boldness pushed me to become an artist myself, not to follow in his footsteps, but to create real art in response to his provocation.
This comment was made by Rubin Poznanski.
I found Kaspar E. Graf's Franklin Car Co. interesting. This piece stood out to me as I felt it had the most modern feeling. The image and slanted typography is bold and grabs attention. The two race cars seem as if they just came into frame with the illusion of speed by using exaggerated proportions and streaked backgrounds. Graf achieved this look by using the airbrush, which was popular for commercial art in this time. The air brush allowed Graf to make sleek metallic surfaces with a modern feeling to it. Doing outside research I found that this was a commissioned advertisement for the Franklin Automobile Company. Graf’s work was influenced by movements like Futurism and Art Deco, both of which focused on speed, technology, and progress. His style helped shape the way modern advertising looked, and posters like this one continue to influence design today.
Steven Constantopes.
Cubism really stood out to me because it’s not just about changing how art looks. It’s about changing how we think about seeing things. Analytic cubism specifically, feels like it’s breaking objects down to their core, almost like studying something from every angle at once. It’s less about making something look nice and more about exploring how we understand shapes and forms. Picasso and Gris were both major figures in the movement, but I find myself drawn more to Picasso’s work. His approach in Analytic Cubism feels bold and experimental. He breaks objects down into complex, overlapping shapes that force you to look closer and really think about what you’re seeing. Gris, on the other hand, had a more structured and clean style, which is impressive in its own way, but I like how Picasso’s pieces feel more raw and expressive. There’s a kind of energy in his work that makes it feel like he’s constantly trying to push boundaries. And when he shifted into synthetic cubism and started adding in materials like newspaper and wallpaper, it made his art even more engaging and unexpected. I think that unpredictability is part of what makes his work so memorable.
In class last week, our discussion on Neoplasticism really stood out to me because it takes away a lot of the extra elements of art at the time, and focuses on the core elements like lines, primary colors, and geometric shapes. Some of the images that we looked at felt like a visual reset and the art focused on the “perfect balance” after all the chaos of the early 20th century. What was really interesting to me was how much such a simple piece can convey and mean. Finally, after looking at other Neoplasticism examples, it made me realize how much power simplicity holds and how more isn't always better.
Last semester, I took an Art Appreciation class at Miami Dade, and Marcel Duchamp was one of the artists my professor frequently mentioned. His work stood out to me, particularly the famous Fountain, which is literally just a urinal marked "R. Mutt" and submitted to an art show. At first, it seemed kind of ridiculous, but the more we talked about it, the more I saw how important and interesting it really was. Duchamp was part of the Dada movement, which rejected standard artistic norms and instead created strange and unexpected art. The concept was that "anything goes," which is what made it interesting. I just learned that Dada artists were reacting to the chaos and disorder of World War I, therefore their art was a form of rebellion against the serious, traditional art world.
Last week we looked at advertisements from the 20s and 30s and those really stuck out to me. There is something so impactful about simplicity. Text and the product, that’s all. Makes me think of the saying that if your product is good it will sell itself. On the other hand, despite the simplistic nature of many of the posters, they exude elegance and refinement. I like the idea that art reflects life, but also that life reflects art. The posters capture an idealized point of view: elegance made simple, easy, accessible. A lot of companies today aim for similar impacts, but lose the message in flashy effects and overproduced videos. In these posters from the 1920-30s, the products feel luxe but attainable (something advertisements nowadays sorely lack).
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