''Cubist Landscape'', also referred to as ''Tree and River'' and ''Paysage cubiste'' or ''Arbre et fleuve'', is a
Cubist
Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...
painting created in 1914 by the French artist
Albert Gleizes
Albert Gleizes (; 8 December 1881 – 23 June 1953) was a French artist, theoretician, philosopher, a self-proclaimed founder of Cubism and an influence on the School of Paris. Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger wrote the first major treatise on ...
. ''Tree and River'' is one of Gleizes' last pre-World War I landscapes. A comparison with earlier works such as ''
Le Chemin, Paysage à Meudon'' (1911), ''
Les Baigneuses (Gleizes)
''Les Baigneuses'' (also known as ''The Bathers'') is a large oil painting created at the outset of 1912 by the French artist, theorist and writer Albert Gleizes (1881–1953). It was exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris during the ...
'' (1912), ''
Harvest Threshing
''Le Dépiquage des Moissons'', also known as ''Harvest Threshing'', and ''The Harvesters'', is an immense oil painting created in 1912 by the French artist, theorist and writer Albert Gleizes (1881–1953). It was first revealed to the general p ...
'' (1912) and ''
Passy, Bridges of Paris'' (1912) demonstrates the artists' continuity with the theme of deep spatial vistas and wide panoramic views, though with a notable diminution of specific references to reality.
[Robbins, Daniel, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York]
''Albert Gleizes, 1881-1953, A Retrospective Exhibition''
1964 The painting was reproduced in the German art and literary magazine ''
Der Sturm
''Der Sturm'' () was a German avant-garde art and literary magazine founded by Herwarth Walden, covering Expressionism, Cubism, Dada and Surrealism, among other artistic movements. It was published between 1910 and 1932.
History and profile
' ...
'' (titled ''Baum und Fluss'') October 1920.
Description
''Cubist Landscape'' is an oil painting on canvas in horizontal format with dimensions , signed and dated ''Alb Gleizes, 14'', lower right. Executed in a Cubist style, the work is notable in its fusing of foreground and background, the multiple perspective—also called simultaneity or multiplicity,
[Christopher Green, 2009, ''Cubism, Meanings and interpretations'', MoMA, Grove Art Online, Oxford University Press, 2009](_blank)
successive views at various moments in time of the elements—the freely flowing brushstrokes, and the dark lines and arcs delineating juxtaposing color planes or surfaces.
Art historian
Daniel Robbins, in his Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Gleizes Retrospective Exhibition catalogue writes of Gleizes' work during the period:
His work was always directly engaged with environment, especially an unfamiliar one... In the works from 1914 through the end of the New York period, paintings without subject and paintings with an evident visual basis exist side by side, their difference in degree of abstraction hidden by the uniformity with which they were painted and by the constant effort to tie the plastic realization of the painting to a specific, even unique, experience. In the absence of his individual reflexes, these unique references—no matter how neutral—seem less and less in accord with the generalized nature of his austere, flat painting style.[Daniel Robbins, 1964, ''Albert Gleizes 1881 – 1953, A Retrospective Exhibition'', Published by The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, in collaboration with Musée National d'Art Moderne, Paris, Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund](_blank)
/ref>
With regard to structural composition, ''Cubist Landscape'' and other works closely related, are of critical importance, as their rhythms anticipate Gleizes' vital principles of
translation and rotation
Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...
(tilting planes and circular movements).
/ref>[Pierre Alibert, ''Gleizes, Naissance et avenire du cubisme'', Aubin-Visconti, Edition Dumas, Saint-Etienne, October 1982, ][Albert Gleizes, ''La Peinture et ses lois, Ce qui devait sortir du cubisme'', La Vie des lettres et des arts, 1922-3, 1924 in book form]
Rhythm and space, for Gleizes, are two vital conditions. Rhythm is a consequence of the continuity of certain phenomena, variable or invariable, following from mathematical relations. Space is a conception of the human psyche that follows from quantitative comparisons. This mechanism, according to Gleizes, is the foundation for artistic expression. It is therefore both a philosophical and scientific synthesis. Cubism was a means to arrive not only at a new mode of expression but above all a new way of thinking. This was, according to art historian , the foundation of both a new species of painting and an alternative relationship with the world; hence another principle of civilization.
See also
* List of works by Albert Gleizes
References
External links
Fondation Albert Gleizes
Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Grand Palais, Agence photographique
André Salmon, ''Artistes d'hier et d'aujourd'hui'', L'Art Vivant, 6th edition, Paris, 1920
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cubist Landscape
Paintings by Albert Gleizes
Cubist paintings
1914 paintings
Landscape paintings
Water in art