Art History Through the Ages
Cry
1893 – Impressionism
Formal Description: The center of the image features a stranger on a bridge with his hands on his face and mouth open, screaming with all his might. To the left, two people walk, oblivious to his distress. Behind the bridge, a harrowing seascape unfolds, complete with sailboats. The main character’s anxiety is visually expressed through sinuous lines and curves that outline the entire environment. The visual imbalance is complemented by a strong diagonal that divides the canvas into two halves: the bridge and the landscape. The two people on the bridge and the boats seem to be the only balanced elements. The mixing of unreal blue, red, yellow, and orange without any transition reinforces a convulsed mood.
Thematic: The painting reflects the main character’s inner world and can be interpreted as a reflection of the artist’s own inner frustrations. It serves as a visual metaphor for the loneliness of man in modern society. It can also be seen as a critical yet optimistic commentary on the world of the bourgeoisie, transforming their leisure places into a nightmare.
The Green Line
1905 – Fauvism
Formal Description: Wide, bright green brushstrokes define the forehead and nose of the artist’s wife. This creates an artificial shade that translates natural light into color. The right side is painted with cool tones (green, blue) simulating darkness, while the left side features warm colors (red, violet) in half-light. The schematic and geometrical drawing, along with the total freedom in the use of color and strong contrasts, forms a sort of mask. This creates an impression of depth. The background is unrealistic and made up of different areas of color, rejecting traditional chromatic harmony and the use of complementary colors. The artist also abandons chiaroscuro. The figure takes on a modeled plane, and light loses some of its importance. The use of broad brushstrokes and paste divides the various compositional schemes without resorting to drawing.
Theme: This portrait was an important avant-garde pictorial exercise. The artist’s intention was to transform the bust of his wife, using the subject as a result of his own experiences and inner vision of reality. The pictorial elements are the true protagonists of the painting, not the model.
Estaque
Braque – Cubism
Theme: Landscape
Description: Small green plants introduce the viewer to a strange landscape where staggered trees and houses mingle. Braque opts for a three-dimensional rendering and simplification of the figure through the reduction of simple geometric shapes of different polyhedral planes. He rejects the rules of Renaissance perspective and presents a space dominated by multiple points of view and light sources. The use of small touches allows objects to radiate their own light. He uses shading to give the feeling of volume. From a chromatic point of view, he mixes warm and cool colors.
Subject: The painting shows a particular view of the village, not attempting to represent reality but rather exercising a composition based on geometric shapes. The houses are nothing more than a tight tangle of cubes embedded in a site filled with lush plants and trees.
Composition IV
Kandinsky – Abstract
Theme: Battle between knights
Description: The canvas still maintains elements that refer to forms and objects in nature. On the left, two riders seem to be struggling on the arch of Saint Martin, while in the center, a castle crowns a blue mountain, against which three knights hold very long spears. The central scene divides the canvas into two distinct halves. The artist’s free use of dynamic and colorful interlocking shapes contributes to a serene atmosphere. He creates a game full of rhythmic and emotional contrasts, over which the viewer’s eye cannot settle.
Subject: The viewer is invited to contemplate the lines and colors on the canvas in order to be influenced and directed by their sensibility. The painting is not addressed to the sense of sight but to the soul, bypassing objective titles and replacing them with names like “Improvisation” and “Composition”.
Guernica
Picasso – Cubism and Expressionism
Theme: Political denunciation
Description: Nine figures appear on a distressing architectural stage: six people and three animals. All these figures form a large pyramid composed of two axes located at the upper vertical extremes. The vertex of the triangle is in the center, where there is a horse with a spear stuck in it next to a fleeing woman. Under the animal’s legs lies a quartered soldier. On the left side, a bull appears in a tragic ascending sense. There is a representation of motherhood and a bird stuck between the ceiling and the table. The right side is occupied by a woman trapped in a fire. Picasso perfectly captures the horror of war through a language halfway between Cubism and Expressionism. The unreal and artificial light from windows and ceiling lights produces a light marked by Cubist geometric multiplicity.
Color: Uses white, black, and gray.
Thematic: During the Spanish Civil War, the German Condor Legion bombed the Basque town of Guernica. This massacre drew Picasso’s attention, and, impressed by the events, he began painting to denounce the attack by the Nazi air force. The woman with raised arms is an allegory of physical pain and a metaphor for those who are persecuted. The figure holding her son symbolizes the psychological pain of those who have lost loved ones. The quartered soldier has been seen as representing the two Spains in conflict. The characters by the window represent the will of the survivors, and the ceiling light has been related to false national propaganda. The horse represents the population, and the bird is related to the dove of peace, which has also been attacked.