Impressionism and Cubism

795 Words2 Pages

I would like to talk about a subject that is loved and discussed by many people in our society. I would like to talk about art. Not just any art, but two of my favorite styles – Cubism and Impressionism. I studied art in Russia and continued in United States. And every time I see a bright, full of sunshine work of Impressionist artist or a strange, bizarre looking painting done by Cubist, I get a nervous feeling inside. Feeling of beauty and visual satisfaction, appreciation and delight for people who created the art we enjoy and use every day in our lives. Cubism and Impressionism broke away from the traditional style of painting. Both were not understood and appreciated in the beginning. Impressionism was a radical departure from tradition. And Cubism was a completely different style of art that no one had seen before (http://www.free-researchpapers.com/dbs/a2/ame118.shtml). There are a lot of similarity in both art styles and a lot of differences. I would like to talk about comparison and contrast.

First of all both movements were born in France. Paris-based artists started those movements of art with a difference of 30 years. Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement. The name is derived from the title of a Claude Monet work, Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant) that he painted in 1872 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressionism). Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and George Braque. The “Early Cubism” started in 1906.

Another interesting connection is, according to the English art historian Douglas Cooper, impressionists Paul Gauguin and Paul Cezanne were particularly influential to the formation of Cubism. Paul Cezanne, in his last years of life, exp...

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...tar looking at you from George Braque’s canvas or a portrait of a famous person done by Pablo Picasso. Cubists used abstract geometrical shapes, like cubes, spheres, cylinders, and cones.

We all see art differently. Someone loves abstract, another person will appreciate expressionism or surrealism, but everyone has a favorite artist or an art object. Both Cubism and Impressionism play an important part in development of modern art. Both art stiles needed time to be accepted and understood. We may not understand what the artist had in mind, but that is what makes it so unique. Pablo Picasso once said: “The fact that for a long time cubism has not been understood. . . means nothing. I do not read English, as English book is a blank book to me. This does not mean that the English language does not exist” (http://www.free-researchpapers.com/dbs/a2/ame118.shtml).

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