Page:EB1922 - Volume 32.djvu/23

Rh

a restricted art, and made of cubism merely an exercise and disci- pline in the expression of three-dimensional form. The purists, however, hold that art is not concerned with Euclidean space but with a special pictorial space, which we feel by our whole personality expanding or contracting before a picture; and that it is not the painter's business to create an illusion of a third dimension but to make live on a two-dimensional surface a reality of three dimensions. Further difficulties have been caused by development of a theory of simultaneity which justifies presen- tation on the same canvas of several aspects of the same object ; this often only comes to a mechanical arrangement of a number of separate impressions, whose disentanglement may be a source of interest, so that cubism is descriptive rather than pictorial.

Pablo Picasso (b.i88i, at Malaga) has been the dominating force in the movement, but by no means typifies it. With him cubism has been only a phase. To a realistic period, mainly in- fluenced by Toulouse-Lautrec, succeeded a group of reddish nudes, solidly constructed from simplified planes, which ushered in the cubist period. The earlier work in this showed some con- formity to natural appearance, and was mainly in grisaille. Later the forms became more abstract, the design more arbitrary and the colour brilliant, sand and similar substances being embedded in the paint to give relief and variety of surface. Picasso's latest phase shows the influence of Ingres, especially in his drawings. Some of these show a delicate, unbroken contour, others the use of shading; but all conform closely to natural appearance, with only enough distortion to give flow and rhythm. The chief characteristic of Picasso is his versatility. There is no method he has tried which he has not mastered. But whether he has yet achieved more than a series of exercises in different manners is open to question. The work of other cubists is remarkable for its sameness and impersonal quality. Georges Braque's rigid ad- herence to abstract forms, straight lines and sombre browns and greys make him the purist of the movement; Gleizes and Metzin- ger, by their more graceful use of line and colour and by their writings, are its popularizers; while Fernand Leger and Auguste Herbin are mainly makers of attractive patterns in bright colour. The use of colour is, however, pushed furthest by the Orphists, such as R. Delaunay, whose rejection of all rules is really a pro- test against the formal side of cubism, which he has translated into terms of curves and circles decked with vivid colour.

Between the extremes of cubism and fauvism stands a consider- able group of artists who derive something from both, but repre- sent the direct and increasing influence of Cezanne. Of these Albert Marquet (b.iSys) is primarily a painter of Paris and of the Seine, whose use of well-defined planes, with their tonal relations very accurately expressed, is apt to degenerate into an ingenious system of notation. Jean Puy (b.i876), in his landscapes of wide- stretching countrysides, brings many scattered elements into harmonious relation by his feeling for subtle variations in colour and tone. With Othon Friez (b.iSyg) the organizing constructive instinct is uppermost, but he shows considerable power of retain- ing fresh and unspoiled his original conception. More consciously decorative than Cezanne, his mural paintings sometimes show the influence of Gauguin. Jean Marchand (b.i883) and Dunoyer de Segonzac (b.i884) represent a younger generation to whom cubism has been a gymnastic to develop understanding of form, but who now rely on colour and tone to give solidity and a sense of space. Marchand, taking for his material the most ordinary objects of daily life and the countryside, and using a simple, sober palette, gives his work distinction by his dignified design; Segonzac, with similar constructive power, works in a thick im- pasto with free use of the palette-knife in colour which has become increasingly sombre. His war paintings express a very personal emotion awakened by experience, and are the colour of the mud which dominated the battlefield. Andre Derain (b.i88o) is one of the most influential of younger painters who, after a period influenced by Van Gogh and the neo-impressionists, produced a series of truculent nudes and landscapes, which showed cubist and fauve influence in their simplified and distorted forms. His recent work is more sober and severe, and reflects a study of Ingres. At times Derain's technical accomplishment threatens

to lead him into the mannerism which marks the dramatic land- scapes of Maurice Vlaminck (b.i876), with their heavy skies and contrast of sombre greens with vivid reds and pinks.

Futurism. Modern art in other countries is mainly an exten- sion or adaptation of French ideas and method. Spain, it is true, has produced Picasso; but cubism is entirely Parisian in origin, and so much of the modern spirit as appears in Catalan painters such as Sunyer and Casals is derived from France. Futurism, however, is indigenous to Italy. The term has been loosely used, especially in England, to denote the modern movement as a whole; but it has a definite and limited application to the doc- trines of a group of Italian poets, sculptors and painters, first presented to the world in 1909 in a manifesto signed by F. T. Marinetti, the poet and high priest of the movement. These doc- trines apply to art a general philosophy of life, with its origin in modern scientific theories which express all matter in terms of energy, and are based on denunciation of all that the past has done (whence the name futurism) and on the worship of movement and conflict as the dominant characteristics of modern life. Cub- ism, as based on tradition and dealing only with the static as- pects of life, it rejects; impressionism it claims to have surpassed, but takes as a starting-point. The futurist's aim is to represent, not the appearance of objects at some particular point in their course, but the sensation of movement and growth itself. One method, which connects futurism with cubism, is to combine on one canvas not only what the artist sees, but what he knows and remembers about an object. Another, peculiar to futurism, is the use of " force lines." Every object, it is argued, is at a given moment the temporary outcome of continuously acting forces, whose character is indicated by the lines and planes enclosing it. Thus an object becomes simply the beginning or prolongation of rhythms conveyed to the artist by contemplation thereof; and these he represents in his picture by lines arranged to clash, harmonize, or interplay in order to express states of mind such as chaotic excitement, happiness or interest. Colour the futurists use arbitrarily to assist in conveying these sensations.

Luigi Russolo is the most logical and orthodox of the futurists. The work of others, such as Carlo Carra, is little more than a catalogue of information about a number of different objects; though Umberto Boccioni, who has applied futurist theories also to sculpture, sometimes redeems his work by an interesting de- sign. The gaily coloured, tapestry-like patterns of Gino Severini are among the most attractive futurist paintings; but his recent work has been modified by cubist and academic influences. His career typifies the fate of futurism, which has found no new re- cruits, and has had but transient influence.

Modern English Painting. The English vorticists share some of the futurist doctrines; but the main forces shaping the modern movement in England are French. This movement first took shape in the studio of Walter Sickert, and resulted in the formation of the Camden Town group under the presidency of Spencer Fred- erick Gore (1878-1914), which developed into the more eclectic London group, whose first president was Harold Gilman (1876- 1919). At the same time Roger Fry (b.i866), by his writings and by assisting to organize post-impressionist exhibitions in 1910 and 1912 at the Graf ton Galleries, did much to make known the character of the modern movement in France, and to assimilate more closely thereto the English movement. Gore and Gilman represent the movement in its earlier stages. Gore's earlier im- pressionism was modified under the influence of Cezanne and Van Gogh by increased attention to structure and design, which for a time obscured his charming sense of colour. This reappeared in his latest and most important work, done mainly at Richmond. Gilman emerged from a period influenced by Whistler and paint- ers of the Vuillard type to one which gave increased emphasis to the third dimension and showed the influence of Van Gogh in the use of brilliant, clear colour and the handling of paint. Charles Ginner, whose work is closely akin to Gilman's, describes their art as aiming at "the plastic interpretation of life through intimate research into nature." The emotions aroused by nature in the artist he must express by deliberate and objective transpo- sition of nature on to canvas, so that he reveals the qualities in her