Cubist pochoirs

"Everything in nature takes its form from the sphere, the cone, and the cylinder," wrote Paul C�zanne. It was the major C�zanne retrospective in Paris in 1907, together with Picasso's discovery of African and Oceanic art around the same time, that gave rise to the Cubist movement which propelled art into the twentieth century and the machine age. Picasso's famous 1907 painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon shows Cubism in its earliest formative stage; its fractured perspectives derive, I believe, from Picasso's memories of the endless reflections he had glimpsed in the heavily mirrored brothels of the barrio chino in Barcelona, where the painting is set. In 1907 and 1908 Picasso, in close collaboration and friendly rivalry with Georges Braque, worked out the template for Cubism, an art in which the single perspective of a static onlooker is replaced by the multiple perspective of an all-seeing eye.

Pablo Picasso, Three Musicians
Pochoir after a painting
from Eugenio d'Ors Pablo Picasso 1930


Georges Braque, La Bouteille de Marc
Pochoir after a collage
from XXe Si�cle, 1956


While Picasso and Braque were generous and open in sharing their discoveries with fellow artists, they were in no hurry to exhibit this ground-breaking work, and the first the general public knew of this radical new art was the Cubist room at the Salon des Ind�pendants in spring 1911, which showed work not by Cubism's originators but by their followers, who called themselves the Section d'Or. This same group staged an exhibition the following year at the Galerie La Boetie in Paris, to mark the publication of Du Cubisme by two of the members, Jean Metzinger and Albert Gleizes. America's introduction to Cubism came through a series of drypoints by Jacques Villon (who gave the Section d'Or its name), exhibited at the Armory Show in New York in 1913.

Henri Laurens, Nature Morte
Pochoir after a painting
from XXe Si�cle, 1956

I've just acquired a copy of Guillaume Janneau's 1929 study L'Art Cubiste, which was enhanced by 12 pochoir (hand-stencilled) plates. The tricky task of cutting the stencils and hand-applying the gouache colour was entrusted to one of the masters of pochoir, Daniel Jacomet. I only have 11 of these plates (one by L�ger is missing), but here they are, to give an overview of the movement, and the individual approaches developed by the various artists who followed in the wake of Braque and Picasso.

Georges Braque
Pochoir after a painting
from L'Art Cubiste, 1929

Pablo Picasso
Pochoir after a watercolour
from L'Art Cubiste, 1929

Albert Gleizes
Pochoir after a gouache
from L'Art Cubiste, 1929

Auguste Herbin
Pochoir after a watercolour
from L'Art Cubiste, 1929

Louis Marcoussis
Pochoir after a painting
from L'Art Cubiste, 1929

Georges Valmier
Pochoir after a watercolour
from L'Art Cubiste, 1929

Henri Laurens
Pochoir after a watercolour
from L'Art Cubiste, 1929

Andr� Lhote
Pochoir after a gouache
from L'Art Cubiste, 1929

Pablo Picasso
Pochoir after a painting
from L'Art Cubiste, 1929

Juan Gris
Pochoir after a watercolour
from L'Art Cubiste, 1929

Fernand L�ger
Pochoir after a watercolour
from L'Art Cubiste, 1929

Popular posts from this blog

A Vision of the End: Simon Segal's Apocalypse

Image
The Book of Revelation (L'Apocalypse selon Saint Jean) is almost too rich in imagery for artistic interpretation, which hasn't stopped artists from trying! One very satisfying version is that published in 1969 by Simon S�gal. This project about the end of the world was undertaken at the end of S�gal's life. He was born into a Jewish family in Bialystok, Poland (then part of the Russian Empire, so it is a moot point whether S�gal should be regarded as having Polish or Russian origin) in 1898. After WWI, S�gal emigrated to Berlin, moving to France in 1926 and becoming a naturalized French citizen in 1949. L'Apocalypse: The Lamb The expressionist art of Simon S�gal was influenced by that of Chaim Soutine, Georges Rouault, and Marc Chagall, and echoes of all three can be seen in S�gal's lithographs for L'Apocalypse. I very much admire these vibrantly colourful works, with their vivid depictions of St John's phantasmagorical vision of the end of the world. L'
Read more

Fantastic vision of the Machine Age

Image
T he painter, printmaker, sculptor and ceramicist Gio Colucci (sometimes known in France as G�o Colucci) was born in Florence (one source says Cairo) in 1892, and died in Paris in 1974. He studied architecture at the �cole des Beaux-Arts, Paris, after which he went to Egypt to practice as an architect in Cairo. It was in Cairo that he gradually moved over from architecture to fine art. His older brother was the writer and publisher Guido Colucci, born in Naples; Guido and Gio collaborated on a number of books to which Guido furnished the texts and Gio the illustrations. Gio Colucci, Bonheur du monde I Etching, 1929 From copy 74/105 Printed by Paul Haasen on Arches wove paper As a printmaker, Gio Colucci produced both etchings and wood engravings. From 1921 he showed his etchings at the Salon de la Soci�t� Nationale des Beaux-Arts, and also showed work at the Salon d'Automne and the Salon des Surind�pendants alongside Gleizes, Herbin, Delaunay, and others.  Gio Colucci, Bonheur du
Read more

Rodin's last mistress? Jeanne Bardey

Image
A comment from Emeline on my last post, about the profound unacknowledged contribution of his pupil, assistant, and mistress Camille Claudel to Rodin's work, reminded me that I have a number of etchings and drypoints by another of Rodin's pupils and mistresses, Jeanne Bardey. Like most of the women in Rodin's life - his longterm partner Rose Beuret, Camille Claudel, Gwen John - Jeanne Bardey got a raw deal from her relationship with him. She was born in Lyon 1869. She was therefore 5 years younger than Camille Claudel, and seven years older than Gwen John [N.B. This information appears to be wrong; her correct dates are 1872-1954; see the next post]. Rodin made a will in her favour, which was anulled when, after his fourth stroke, and when it has been argued he was incapable of informed assent, he was persuaded to sign a deed of gift willing all his estate to the French State. There's a whole book about this controversy, which I haven't seen, Jeanne Bardey et Rodin:
Read more