Post Impressionism And Cubism Analysis

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Post Impressionism and Cubism

Unlike traditional art styles like that of realism, both movements of post impressionism and cubism explored the more human expression side of art. They elevated towards a more open way to defines ones emotions and feelings by using traits like color expression as opposed to color theory. The two artists that are most notability known for their work during these movements are Vincent Van Gogh with his painting The Starry Night and Pablo Picasso with his Weeping Woman painting. These two artist and there work would later inspire artists to create pieces centered around the ideas of free thinking and self-expression. Post Impressionism and cubism are just some of the early styles to bring about this change and help …show more content…

Synthetic cubism is defined as building a figure or object up into something that is created using both arbitrary colors and geometric shapes. Picasso was known for painting in this style to also show more emotion and give us as viewers a multiple perspective look. The emotion seen in this painting is done by his use of sharp geometric shapes around the eyes and mouth to emphasize the fear and sadness seen in the women’s face. These traits fit in with the cubism movement because of how they are essential when creating a cubism painting. The cultural context in which the painting is associated with ties into WWII. After a bombing of the northern Spanish territory of Basque, Picasso, originally from this region, felt devastated after hearing of this news. As a result he began to create a series of paintings that expressed his feelings towards this event. Many of the paintings in this series highlighted the gruesomeness of war whether it be by showing off a burning house that ignites the city or a soldier with blown off body parts laying down in the street. His painting the Weeping Woman derives from this series which was used to show the pain and fear of these people during this time of civil war. The model used for most of the paintings that were created in the series was Dora Maar. Her importance stems from her occupation as being in charge for documenting the stages of Picasso’s art carrier. Picasso …show more content…

The most noticeable comparison made by both works is there usage of abstract colors. This is because the art styles they use, cubism and post impressionism, include the idea of color expression. We see both use this component in order to draw our attention to either the night sky and the many twinkling stars seen in Van Gogh’s Starry Night or the sad pale blue expressions used to draw sadness in Picasso’s Weeping Woman. Starry Night could also be considered using a mild form of synthetic cubism. This can be defined by the small town in the center of the painting being made up from simple geometric shape to create the town and its surrounding features. The similarities seen in Picasso’s Weeping Woman are how both works seem to use blue in order to express emotion and or death. Knowing that Picasso’s painting deals with the tragic misfortune that is war and how life is seemingly meaningless during it, Van Gogh’s painting also deals with this conflict. His use of the cypress tree in the foreground gives us the interpretation that death is always around you, waiting for you to slip up. The tree hangs over the town, anticipating death. The town could also be considered as Dutch, which is significant because of how in just a few decades, war may be seen in this area and the tree was the warning sign that predicted

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