Aesthetics of the "low style", cubism and other innovations that French artists of the twentieth century conquered the world with: Matisse, Chagall, etc

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

About France, and in particular about Paris, you can talk indefinitely, describing all the pros and cons of the city and the country as a whole. But the French capital from time immemorial stood out for its special character, not wanting to fit into the generally accepted framework and stereotypes. This amazing place has "raised" and "educated" the best designers, perfumers, stylists, architects, and of course, artists of the twentieth century, whose works, enjoying immense popularity, entered the history of art, firmly settling there for centuries.

1. Raoul Dufy

Raoul Dufy was a fauvist painter who successfully adopted the colorful, decorative style of the movement. He usually painted outdoor scenes with live social events. Raoul studied art at the same academy as the cubist painter Georges Braque. Dufy was particularly influenced by impressionist landscape painters such as Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro.

Unfortunately, in his old age, the artist developed rheumatoid arthritis. This made drawing difficult, but instead of giving up and giving up his life's work, he attached his brushes to his hands, continuing to tell in his works about a huge and unfading love for art.

2. Fernand Leger

Fernand Léger was a renowned French painter, sculptor and filmmaker. He attended both the School of Decorative Arts and the Julian Academy, but was rejected from the School of Fine Arts. He was only allowed to attend courses as an unenrolled student. Despite this setback, he became one of the renowned artists in contemporary art.

Fernand began his career as an impressionist painter. After seeing an exhibition by Paul Cézanne in 1907, he switched to a more geometric style. Throughout his career, his paintings became more and more abstract and rough, with spots of primary colors. Leger's work has been shown at the Salon d'Autumn along with other Cubists such as Picabia and Duchamp. This style and grouping of Cubists became known as the Section d'Or (Golden Ratio).

3. Marcel Duchamp

Marcel Duchamp came from an artistic family. His brothers were also artists, but Marseille left the most vivid and memorable mark in art. He is usually remembered as the inventor of the finished art form. He violated the definition of art, making it almost indefinable. Marseille found various objects and, placing them on a pedestal, called them great art. However, his artistic career began with painting. Duchamp painted more realistically in his early studies and later became an accomplished cubist painter. His paintings have been exhibited at the Salon des Indépendents and the Salon d'Autumn.

4. Henri Matisse

Henri Matisse was originally a law student, but appendicitis caused him to drop out for a short time. During his recovery, his mother bought him some art supplies to keep him busy, and it changed his life forever. He never returned to law school and chose instead to attend Julian Academy. He was a student of Gustave Moreau and Wilhelm-Aldolphe Bouguereau.

After reading Paul Signac's essay on neo-impressionism, Matisse's work became more solid. This led to his notoriety as a fauvist painter. His emphasis on flat imagery and decorative, vibrant colors made him the defining artist of this movement.

5. Francis Picabia

Francis Picabia is a renowned painter, poet and typographer. He began his more serious artistic career in an interesting manner. Picabia had a stamp collection and needed more funds to enlarge it. He noticed that his father owned many valuable Spanish paintings and came up with a plan to sell them without his father knowing anything. He wrote exact copies and filled them in his father's house in order to sell the originals. This gave him the practice he needed to start his career as an artist.

Francis began in the styles familiar for that time - impressionism and pointillism, and then moved on to cubism. He is one of the largest artists associated with the Section d'Or, as well as with the Puteaux group of 1911. After Cubism, the artist went on to become a Dadaist who took part in the Surrealist movement before finally leaving the artistic establishment.

6. Georges Braque

Georges Braque was trained to work in the family business. He was a decorator and painter, but found time to study at the School of Fine Arts in the evenings. Like many other French Cubist painters, Georges began his career as an Impressionist painter. After visiting the 1905 exhibition of the Fauves group, he changed his style. Braque began to paint using the vibrant emotional component of the new movement. As his career progressed, he moved towards the cubist style, becoming one of the artists of the section d'Or. His cubist style is comparable to Picasso's cubist period, therefore, most of their paintings are sometimes difficult to distinguish.

7. Marc Chagall

Marc Chagall was an artist who also worked in many art formats. He dabbled in stained glass, ceramics, tapestries and reproductions of paintings. Mark often drew from memory and this often blurred reality and fantasy, creating especially creative plots. Color was the central focus of his paintings. Chagall was able to create visually striking scenes using only a few colors, while continuing to experiment with an abundance of colors and shades in other works that also left few people indifferent.

8. André Derain

André Derain began his artistic pursuits on his own, experimenting with landscape painting while studying engineering. As his interest in painting grew, he attended courses at the Camillo Academy, where he met Matisse. Matisse saw unbridled talent in André and convinced Derain's parents to let him leave engineering and devote himself to art. His parents agreed, and both artists spent the summer of 1905 preparing work for the Salon d'Automne. At this exhibition, Matisse and Derain became the fathers of Fauvist art. His later works developed in the direction of a new type of classicism. It reflected the themes and styles of the Old Masters, but with a modern twist.

9. Jean Dubuffet

Jean Dubuffet adopted the aesthetics of "low art". His paintings emphasize authenticity and humanity over conventional artistic beauty. As a self-taught artist, he was not attached to the artistic ideals of the academy. This allowed him to create more natural, naive art. He founded the Art Brut (Art Brut) movement, which focused on this style.

In doing so, he did attend Julian's Art Academy, but only for six months. While there, he established connections with renowned artists such as Juan Gris, André Masson and Fernand Léger. This communication ultimately helped his career. His work consisted mainly of paintings with strong, continuous colors, which had their roots in Fauvism and the Die Brücke movement.

10. Eliza Breton

Eliza Breton was a distinguished pianist and surrealist painter. She was the third wife of the writer and artist André Breton and a mainstay of the Parisian surrealist group until 1969. After the death of her husband, she strove to foster genuine surreal activity in her works. Although she was not assertive enough among the surrealists, she was still considered a remarkable surrealist painter, even though she rarely exhibited. She is known for her paintings as well as her surreal caskets.

Continuing the topic of art, read also about why the works of many famous Spanish artists of the XVII in the modern world are valued much more than at that time.