Editing Cubism (section)

====Section d'Or====
{{main|Section d'Or}}
[[File:Salon d'Automne 1912, Paris, works exhibited by Kupka, Modigliani, Csaky, Picabia, Metzinger, Le Fauconnier.jpg|thumb|upright=1.6|The {{lang|fr|[[Salon d'Automne]]|italic=no}} of 1912, held in Paris at the Grand Palais from 1 October to 8 November. [[Joseph Csaky]]'s sculpture ''[[Groupe de femmes]]'' of 1911–12 is exhibited to the left, in front of two sculptures by [[Amedeo Modigliani]]. Other works by [[Section d'Or]] artists are shown (left to right): [[František Kupka]], [[Francis Picabia]], [[Jean Metzinger]] and [[Henri Le Fauconnier]].]]
The ''Section d'Or'', also known as ''Groupe de Puteaux'', founded by some of the most conspicuous Cubists, was a collective of painters, sculptors and critics associated with Cubism and Orphism, active from 1911 through about 1914, coming to prominence in the wake of their controversial showing at the 1911 [[Salon des Indépendants]]. The ''Salon de la Section d'Or'' at the ''Galerie La Boétie'' in Paris, October 1912, was arguably the most important pre-World War I Cubist exhibition; exposing Cubism to a wide audience. Over 200 works were displayed, and the fact that many of the artists showed artworks representative of their development from 1909 to 1912 gave the exhibition the allure of a Cubist retrospective.<ref name="The History and Chronology of Cubism">{{Cite web|url=http://www.serdar-hizli-art.com/art_history/abstract_art/history_and_chronology_of_cubism_page_5.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130314010756/http://www.serdar-hizli-art.com/art_history/abstract_art/history_and_chronology_of_cubism_page_5.htm|url-status=dead|title=The History and Chronology of Cubism, p. 5|archive-date=March 14, 2013}}</ref>

The group seems to have adopted the name Section d'Or to distinguish themselves from the narrower definition of Cubism developed in parallel by [[Pablo Picasso]] and [[Georges Braque]] in the [[Montmartre]] quarter of Paris, and to show that Cubism, rather than being an isolated art-form, represented the continuation of a grand tradition (indeed, the [[golden ratio]] had fascinated Western intellectuals of diverse interests for at least 2,400 years).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_s8JyxbYrSG0/TJZ4b_6VYNI/AAAAAAAABfo/5RCFXVta2yk/s1600/La+Section+d%27Or+numéro+spécial+9+octobre+1912+couv.jpg|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170403151309/http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_s8JyxbYrSG0/TJZ4b_6VYNI/AAAAAAAABfo/5RCFXVta2yk/s1600/La+Section+d%27Or+num%C3%A9ro+sp%C3%A9cial+9+octobre+1912+couv.jpg|url-status=dead|title=La Section d'Or, Numéro spécial, 9 Octobre 1912|archive-date=April 3, 2017}}</ref>

The idea of the Section d'Or originated in the course of conversations between Metzinger, Gleizes and Jacques Villon. The group's title was suggested by Villon, after reading a 1910 translation of [[Leonardo da Vinci]]'s ''[[Codex Urbinas|Trattato della Pittura]]'' by [[Joséphin Péladan]].

During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Europeans were discovering [[African culture|African]], Polynesian, [[Micronesia]]n and [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] art. Artists such as [[Paul Gauguin]], [[Henri Matisse]], and Pablo Picasso were intrigued and inspired by the stark power and simplicity of styles of those foreign cultures. Around 1906, Picasso met Matisse through [[Gertrude Stein]], at a time when both artists had recently acquired an interest in [[primitivism]], [[Iberians|Iberian]] sculpture, [[African art]] and [[African tribal masks]]. They became friendly rivals and competed with each other throughout their careers, perhaps leading to Picasso entering a new period in his work by 1907, marked by the influence of Greek, Iberian and African art. Picasso's paintings of 1907 have been characterized as [[Proto-Cubism|Protocubism]], as notably seen in ''[[Les Demoiselles d'Avignon]]'', the [[Antecedent (genealogy)|antecedent]] of Cubism.<ref name="Cooper, 24" />

[[File:La Carrière de Bibémus, par Paul Cézanne, Yorck.jpg|thumb|left|upright=1.15|[[Paul Cézanne]], ''Quarry Bibémus'', 1898–1900, [[Museum Folkwang, Essen]], Germany]]
Art historian Douglas Cooper says [[Paul Gauguin]] and [[Paul Cézanne]] "were particularly influential to the formation of Cubism and especially important to the paintings of Picasso during 1906 and 1907".<ref>Cooper, 20–27</ref> Cooper goes on to say: "The ''Demoiselles'' is generally referred to as the first Cubist picture. This is an exaggeration, for although it was a major first step towards Cubism it is not yet Cubist. The disruptive, [[expressionist]] element in it is even contrary to the spirit of Cubism, which looked at the world in a detached, realistic spirit. Nevertheless, the ''Demoiselles'' is the logical picture to take as the starting point for Cubism, because it marks the birth of a new pictorial idiom, because in it Picasso violently overturned established conventions and because all that followed grew out of it."<ref name="Cooper, 24"/>

The most serious objection to regarding the ''Demoiselles'' as the origin of Cubism, with its evident influence of primitive art, is that "such deductions are unhistorical", wrote the art historian [[Daniel Robbins (art historian)|Daniel Robbins]]. This familiar explanation "fails to give adequate consideration to the complexities of a flourishing art that existed just before and during the period when Picasso's new painting developed."<ref name="Daniel Robbins">{{Cite web|url=http://archive.org/details/albertgleizes1881robb|title=Albert Gleizes, 1881–1953 : a retrospective exhibition|first=Daniel|last=Robbins|date=April 19, 1964|publisher=[New York : Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation]|via=Internet Archive}}</ref> Between 1905 and 1908, a conscious search for a new style caused rapid changes in art across France, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, and Russia. The Impressionists had used a double point of view, and both [[Les Nabis]] and the [[Symbolism (arts)|Symbolists]] (who also admired Cézanne) flattened the picture plane, reducing their subjects to simple geometric forms. [[Neo-impressionism|Neo-Impressionist]] structure and subject matter, most notably to be seen in the works of [[Georges Seurat]] (e.g., ''Parade de Cirque'', ''[[Le Chahut]]'' and ''[[The Circus (Seurat painting)|Le Cirque]]''), was another important influence. There were also parallels in the development of literature and social thought.<ref name="Daniel Robbins" />

In addition to Seurat, the roots of cubism are to be found in the two distinct tendencies of Cézanne's later work: first his breaking of the painted surface into small multifaceted areas of paint, thereby emphasizing the plural viewpoint given by [[binocular vision]], and second his interest in the simplification of natural forms into cylinders, spheres, and cones. However, the cubists explored this concept further than Cézanne. They represented all the surfaces of depicted objects in a single picture plane, as if the objects had all their faces visible at the same time. This new kind of depiction revolutionized the way objects could be visualized in painting and art.

[[File:Jean Metzinger, 1911-12, La Femme au Cheval - The Rider.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.05|[[Jean Metzinger]], 1911–12, ''[[La Femme au Cheval]], Woman with a horse'', Statens Museum for Kunst, National Gallery of Denmark. Exhibited at the 1912 Salon des Indépendants, and published in Apollinaire's 1913 ''[[The Cubist Painters, Aesthetic Meditations]]''. Provenance: Jacques Nayral, [[Niels Bohr]]]]
The historical study of Cubism began in the late 1920s, drawing at first from sources of limited data, namely the opinions of [[Guillaume Apollinaire]]. It came to rely heavily on [[Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler]]'s book ''Der Weg zum Kubismus'' (published in 1920), which centered on the developments of Picasso, Braque, Léger, and Gris. The terms "analytical" and "synthetic" which subsequently emerged have been widely accepted since the mid-1930s. Both terms are historical impositions that occurred after the facts they identify. Neither phase was designated as such at the time corresponding works were created. "If Kahnweiler considers Cubism as Picasso and Braque," wrote Daniel Robbins, "our only fault is in subjecting other Cubists' works to the rigors of that limited definition."<ref name="Daniel Robbins" />

The traditional interpretation of "Cubism", formulated ''post facto'' as a means of understanding the works of Braque and Picasso, has affected our appreciation of other twentieth-century artists. It is difficult to apply to painters such as [[Jean Metzinger]], Albert Gleizes, [[Robert Delaunay]] and [[Henri Le Fauconnier]], whose fundamental differences from traditional Cubism compelled Kahnweiler to question whether to call them Cubists at all. According to [[Daniel Robbins (art historian)|Daniel Robbins]], "To suggest that merely because these artists developed differently or varied from the traditional pattern they deserved to be relegated to a secondary or satellite role in Cubism is a profound mistake."<ref name="Daniel Robbins" />

The history of the term "Cubism" usually stresses the fact that Matisse referred to "cubes" in connection with a painting by Braque in 1908, and that the term was published twice by the critic [[Louis Vauxcelles]] in a similar context. However, the word "cube" was used in 1906 by another critic, Louis Chassevent, with reference not to Picasso or Braque but rather to Metzinger and Delaunay:

::"M. Metzinger is a mosaicist like M. [[Paul Signac|Signac]] but he brings more precision to the cutting of his cubes of color which appear to have been made mechanically [...]".<ref name="Daniel Robbins" /><ref>Louis Chassevent, ''Les Artistes Indépendants, 1906'', Quelques Petits Salons. Paris, 1908. Chassevent discussed Delaunay and Metzinger in terms of Signac's influence, referring to Metzinger's "precision in the cut of his cubes..."</ref><ref name="Robert Herbert">Robert Herbert, Neo-Impressionism, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, 1968</ref>

The critical use of the word "cube" goes back at least to May 1901 when Jean Béral, reviewing the work of [[Henri-Edmond Cross]] at the Indépendants in ''Art et Littérature'', commented that he "uses a large and square pointillism, giving the impression of mosaic. One even wonders why the artist has not used cubes of solid matter diversely colored: they would make pretty revetments." (Robert Herbert, 1968, p.&nbsp;221)<ref name="Robert Herbert" />

The term Cubism did not come into general usage until 1911, mainly with reference to Metzinger, Gleizes, Delaunay, and Léger.<ref name="Daniel Robbins" /> In 1911, the poet and critic [[Guillaume Apollinaire]] accepted the term on behalf of a group of artists invited to exhibit at the Brussels Indépendants. The following year, in preparation for the Salon de la [[Section d'Or]], Metzinger and Gleizes wrote and published ''[[Du "Cubisme"]]''<ref>A. Gleizes and J. Metzinger. Du "Cubisme", Edition Figuière, Paris, 1912 (Eng. trans., London, 1913)</ref> in an effort to dispel the confusion raging around the word, and as a major defence of Cubism (which had caused a public scandal following the 1911 Salon des Indépendants and the 1912 Salon d'Automne in Paris).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k201712x|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904034853/http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k201712x/f1.image|url-status=dead|title=Mercure de France : série moderne / directeur Alfred Vallette|date=December 1, 1912|archive-date=September 4, 2015|website=Gallica}}</ref> Clarifying their aims as artists, this work was the first theoretical treatise on Cubism and it still remains the clearest and most intelligible. The result, not solely a collaboration between its two authors, reflected discussions by the circle of artists who met in [[Puteaux]] and [[Courbevoie]]. It mirrored the attitudes of the "artists of Passy", which included Picabia and the Duchamp brothers, to whom sections of it were read prior to publication.<ref name="Christopher Green" /><ref name="Daniel Robbins" /> The concept developed in ''Du "Cubisme"'' of observing a subject from different points in space and time simultaneously, i.e., the act of moving around an object to seize it from several successive angles fused into a single image (multiple viewpoints, mobile perspective, simultaneity or multiplicity), is a generally recognized device used by the Cubists.<ref name="David Cottington">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=KFGgxn7lfq0C&q=Cubism%2C+mobile+perspective&pg=PA92|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160101225927/https://books.google.com/books?id=KFGgxn7lfq0C&pg=PA92&lpg=PA92&dq=Cubism,+mobile+perspective&source=bl&ots=rm_znb7YtG&sig=8jHfIJBskeVW31AU_0hqno0HLBY&hl=fr|url-status=dead|title=Cubism and Its Histories|first=David|last=Cottington|date=April 19, 2004|archive-date=January 1, 2016|publisher=Manchester University Press|isbn = 9780719050046|via=Google Books}}</ref>

The 1912 manifesto ''[[Du "Cubisme"]]'' by Metzinger and Gleizes was followed in 1913 by ''[[The Cubist Painters, Aesthetic Meditations|Les Peintres Cubistes]]'', a collection of reflections and commentaries by Guillaume Apollinaire.<ref name="Apollinaire">Guillaume Apollinaire, ''Les Peintres cubistes: Méditations esthétiques'' (Paris, 1913)</ref> Apollinaire had been closely involved with Picasso beginning in 1905, and Braque beginning in 1907, but gave as much attention to artists such as Metzinger, Gleizes, Delaunay, Picabia, and Duchamp.<ref name="Christopher Green" />

The fact that the 1912 exhibition had been curated to show the successive stages through which Cubism had transited, and that ''[[Du "Cubisme"]]'' had been published for the occasion, indicates the artists' intention of making their work comprehensible to a wide audience (art critics, art collectors, art dealers and the general public). Undoubtedly, due to the great success of the exhibition, Cubism became avant-garde movement recognized as a genre or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal.<ref name="The History and Chronology of Cubism" />