Cubist Philosophy in Woman with a Fan
Cubist Philosophy in Woman with a Fan
Widely regarded as the most influential artistic movement in the last century, cubism has maintained itself an avant-garde position mainly through a massive amount of paintings, sculptures, and architectural works that create deep impacts on the developments of literature as well as music. Born at the beginning of the 20th century, Cubist paintings stand for one field of significant innovation significantly separating itself from traditional methods by its emphasis of flatness of canvases, geometric forms, and multiple perspectives in portraying objects (Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler, 1920). Of the major artists pioneering the movement, Jean Metzinger is one outstanding representative whose active involvement is featured by his setting of the theoretical frame of Cubism and unique style within the school. Throughout Metzinger’s career, Woman with a Fan, an oil painting that was first exhibited in 1914, is considered as one of the most famous works due to its demonstration of the Cubist philosophy and the French painter’s unparalleled painting language. During representing a graceful French lady with a plumed hat and a fan, Metzinger’s space and colors reflect the Cubist goal in more complete depictions and shifting viewpoints within one canvas, which is seen as an actual way of perceiving the world. Further, Metzinger’s use of form, which delivers dynamic senses and emphasizes the freedom of perceptions from observers, makes the painting stand on its own merits as one work of distinctive style.
Generally associated with the creations from Paris, Cubism is an art campaign originated in the 1910s and extended its influence by its introduction of multifaceted portraying methods and fragmented objects captured from a multitude of viewpoints (Jean Metzinger, 1910). It is agreed that one central force that promoted Cubism stemmed from an idea of three-dimensional depictions stressed by Paul Cezanne, a French painter who revolutionized previous painting rules over one single perspective. Cezanne’s purpose for sensing, instead of thinking about items, and displaying more depths of things led to a journey characterized by a highly graphical solution accompanied by a creation of authentic experience via including different views observed simultaneously. Later, the artist’s efforts of accommodating complexities of subjects met enthusiastic responses from other artists, such as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, all of which regarded Cezanne’s geometric theory as inspirational and followed the path of capturing images from different angles. Jean Metzinger and Albert Glazes believed that the master’s achievement in moving beyond mere imitations of objects is one significant step that predicts Cubism.
In the history of Cubism, painters’ constant changes of points of views, the dividing of objects, and emphasis on an interactive relation between form and color are a full demonstration of the movement’s principle on the flatness of canvases and geometric structures. Across the works of artists who pushed the development of Cubism, space is treated through maintaining a succession of locations and observing subjects from varying angles. The practice of inscribing different visual results in one canvas exemplifies Cezanne’s exploration over the construction of pictorial space through tactile and motor sensations (Jean Metzinger and Albert Glezes, 1912). Cubist artists’ color scheme, whether in still-life paintings or works including human figures, is based on the theory that color is in service of forms and compositions. It embodies Cezanne’s d faith that any level of modification of color in paintings gives a new expression to form. The widely applied technique of the fracturing of form, where a series of motifs included in the same frame appear in many works, has its solid foundation on the notion that rather than one absolute form, an object has many because there are eyes from different places during comprehensions of images.
In Woman with a Fan, through using a high mobility in terms of differing locations and portraying angles, Metzinger’s spatial arrangement reflects the Cubist spirit in building a sensible bridge between two subjective spaces. With an abandonment of one viewpoint, which was typically used before, Metzinger has adopted a dynamic and mobile portraying style through engaging in multiple locations and providing a succession of time. In the canvas, as the primal subject, the French lady’s feathered hat, face, and neck, are seized from various places and rich perceiving angles. Combined with her coat in the lower part of the canvas where different shades of green reveal an extension of time, these complex details deliver high senses of conjunction and simultaneity, inviting feelings of the breaking down of space and time. Beyond any doubt, the construction matches the highlighted features of multiplicity and ambiguity in spatial structures within Cubism (Eve Blau, Nancy J. Troy, 2002).
Metzinger’s mastery in using his palette serves as another aspect that shows Cubist artworks’ focus on color’s function of specification of mode and helping role in influencing form. In the painting, appreciators see three type of colors that are predominant: green, black, and yellow, all of which indicate a mechanical work. From the mostly black wallpaper, the yellow color of the wall in the background, to the yellow-green surface of the cabinet that appear on the left side of the painting, the artist makes clear a decorative function of colors. Besides, the soft greens in the French lady’s well-tailored coat deepen an impression of a secondary position of colors on the canvas. In understanding the significance of his palette, Metzinger illuminated on a process of interpretation, instead of imitation, over the physical world. Rather than merely copying nature, the language of color is one necessary device for stimulating harmonious emotions from the minds of viewers (Gelett Burgess, 1910). In other words, its close relation to form helps produce the subjective beauty of the picture.
The painting’s largely geometrical and dynamic form, which leads to a sharp contrast to the poverty of conventional representations in terms of providing incomplete ideas about subject’s form, is one area that sets Metzinger apart from others (Daniel Robbins, 1985). The artist’s unmatched accomplishment lies in his skillful display of senses of fullness. A flowing mode is made by the woman’s round hat that is clearly divided into portions, the curvilinear style shown by her coat, and the lower part of the vase. Straight and curved lines compensating each other and simple shapes are embodied by the major subject, the French woman, and patterns of the background. With many squares and rectangles outlining the background, aided by a clear color code, a dynamism of the form is a made through the depiction of multiple images collected through a use of different viewpoints. As every element realizes its function of communication, a result of wise consideration, the painting creates convenience for viewers’ judgments and secures Metzinger a superior position above his fellows.
As an oil painting that focuses on a well-dressed lady from Paris, Woman with a Fan’s treatments of three elements exhibits Cubist paintings’ highest standard. Metzinger’s space and color demonstrate the Cubist principle of flattened representations and accurately capturing the images through occupations of different locations and deliveries of extension of time. The painter’s treatment of form that features geometry and dynamism is one particular area suggestive of clear logic and clarity during communicating with viewers. These aspects constitute remarkable advantages that makes the painting a masterpiece with enduring values of research and unique beauty.