Cubism: A style of abstract art that developed in the early 20th century, they sought to reject traditional western art, in particular, perspective, which artists had been seeking to represent since the renaissance. It is often associated with the artists Georges Barques and Pablo Picasso whose shared interest in the later works of Paul Cezanne led them to develop a style of their own. Cezanne himself felt that perspective was a way of denying the essential difference between reality and a painting, and so flattened his image and explored the surfaces and qualities of his 2 dimensional canvases.
Equally cubism sought to avoid static view points, choosing to represent, in 2D, more than one side of their subject, by doing this they hoped to express a notion of subjectivity and represent better what it was the artist themself saw.
Another major influence in cubism, although Picasso always denied it, was art from other cultures, particularly African art. There are clear comparisons to be made between the angular, stylistic forms of African masks and artworks, and most historians and critics suggest that Picasso was inspired by a visit to a museum of African art in Paris.
Cubism went through two phases; the first is referred to as “analytical cubism,” it is typically monochromatic and involves the artist looking at reality, breaking it down, then rearranging it to create form. Eventually however new techniques developed within the movement, particularly mixing in collage with their painting, these works are typically more colourful, more abstract and are referred to as “synthetic cubism.”
Surrealism: Also developed in the early 20th Surrealism sought to explore the subconscious mind, influenced by the works of Marx and Freud it became a major international movement. Central themes of surrealism include spontaneity, juxtaposition and undertones of annihilation and nihilism, much of the philosophy of surrealism seems to stem from earlier movements like Dadaism. Prominent surrealist artists include Salvador Dali, Max Ernst and Rene Magritte; Dali in particular was a very prolific artist whose work stretched into sculpture, film, photography and writing. Also he was eccentric, extravagant and unusual, this reflected in his art and in the movement in general.
Rene Magritte’s famous painting of the smoking pipe, with the caption: “this is not a pipe,” is a very obvious example of the sort of anti-structure and confusion the surrealists wished to create in their work. Especially in that work the artist wanted to point out that the pipe in the painting, was just that, a painting, and not actually a pipe.
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