Art

Question 1

While cinematic and photographic art are rooted in representing reality, Cubism fundamentally rejects this goal by depicting subjects from multiple viewpoints simultaneously. The key contrast lies in how each form handles perspective, time, and representation.
Photographic and cinematic art
Photography and cinema are inherently tied to a single moment in time and a fixed perspective, though they can suggest a different feeling.
Single-point perspective: A traditional photograph or film shot captures a scene from one specific camera angle at one moment in time. Early cameras, in particular, emphasized the single viewpoint perspective, a tradition in art since the Renaissance.
Representational reality: The goal of most photography and conventional filmmaking is to accurately document or replicate external appearances. Even when creating artful images, the medium is tied to presenting the illusion of a three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional surface.
Linear time: Traditional cinema captures motion and time as a linear progression. Events unfold chronologically in each shot or scene. While editing can manipulate the viewer’s experience of time, a continuous sequence of images still suggests a progression from one moment to the next.
Cubism
Developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, Cubism is a radical departure from these principles. It aimed to show the “essence” of an object rather than its fleeting, physical appearance.
Multiple perspectives: Cubism is famous for its rejection of single-point perspective. Instead, it fragments and reassembles objects into geometric shapes, depicting them from various vantage points at the same time within a single frame.
Conceptual reality: Rather than representing the visible world, Cubism presents a conceptual reality based on intellect. The artist’s aim is to show an object from all sides, suggesting three-dimensional qualities without relying on the traditional methods of perspective and shading.
Non-linear time and space: By presenting multiple views simultaneously, Cubism compresses time and space into a single, two-dimensional plane. The finished painting is a culmination of different observations over time, not a snapshot of a single instant.
Where the two intersect
Ironically, the advent of photography and cinema influenced the Cubists by forcing them to redefine the role of painting. Some photographic techniques also borrowed from Cubist concepts.
Photomontage: Artists like David Hockney and Stephen McNally created “Photographic Cubism” by taking numerous photographs of a subject from different angles and combining them into a single, composite image.
Avant-garde cinema: Some experimental filmmakers in the early 20th century, like Viking Eggeling and Hans Richter, drew inspiration from Cubism. They used techniques like abstraction and montage to explore the fragmentation of form, echoing Cubist principles in motion pictures.