distinct from the representation of the visible world. Delaunay de-
veloped his ideas about color use in dialogue with his Russian-born
wife, Sonia (1885–1974), also an artist. She created paintings, quilts,
other textile arts, and book covers that exploited the expressive capa-
bilities of color. As a result of their artistic explorations, both Delau-
nays became convinced that the rhythms of modern life could best
be expressed through color harmonies and dissonances.Champs de
Mars,or The Red Tower (FIG. 35-15), is one of many paintings De-
launay produced between 1909 and 1912 depicting the Eiffel Tower
(FIG. 31-1). The title Champs de Mars refers to the Parisian field on
which the Eiffel Tower stands, named after the Campus Martius
(Field of Mars) located outside the walls of Republican Rome.
The artist broke Eiffel’s tower into a kaleidoscopic array of col-
ored pieces, which variously leap forward or pull back according to
the relative hues and values of the broken shapes. The structure am-
biguously rises and collapses. Delaunay’s experiments with color dy-
namics strongly influenced the Futurists (discussed later) and the
German Expressionists (he exhibited with Der Blaue Reiter as well as
with Cubists). These artists found in his art a means for intensifying
expression by suggesting violent motion through shape and color.
Some scholars have interpreted Delaunay’s fragmentation of the
Eiffel Tower in Champs de Mars in political terms as a commentary on
societal collapse in the years leading to World War I. Delaunay himself
described the collapsing-tower imagery as “the synthesis of a period of
destruction; likewise a prophetic vision with social repercussions: war,
and the base crumbles.”^8 This statement encapsulates well the social
and artistic climate during these years—the destruction of old worldorders and of artistic practices deemed obsolete, as well as the avant-
garde’s prophetic nature and its determination to subvert tradition.
SYNTHETIC CUBISM In 1912, Cubism entered a new phase
called Synthetic Cubism,in which artists constructed paintings and
drawings from objects and shapes cut from paper or other materials
to represent parts of a subject. The work marking the point of de-
parture for this new style was Picasso’s Still Life with Chair-Caning
(FIG. 35-16), a painting in which the artist imprinted a photolitho-
graphed pattern of a cane chair seat on the canvas and then pasted a
piece of oilcloth on it. Framed with a piece of rope, this work chal-
lenges the viewer’s understanding of reality. The photographically
replicated chair-caning seems so “real” that one expects the holes to
break any brush strokes laid upon it. But the chair-caning, although
optically suggestive of the real, is only an illusion or representation
of an object. In contrast, the painted abstract areas do not refer to
tangible objects in the real world. Yet the fact they do not imitate
anything makes them more “real” than the chair-caning. No pretense
exists. Picasso extended the visual play by making the letter U escape
from the space of the accompanying J and O and partially covering it
with a cylindrical shape that pushes across its left side. The letters
JOU appear in many Cubist paintings. These letters formed part of
the masthead of the daily French newspapers (journaux) often
found among the objects represented. Picasso and Braque especially
delighted in the punning references to jouer and jouir—the French
verbs meaning “to play” and “to enjoy.”
COLLAGE After Still Life with Chair-Caning,both Picasso and
Braque continued to explore the medium ofcollage introduced into the
realm of high art in that work. From the French word “coller” (“to
stick”), a collage is a composition of bits of objects, such as newspaper
or cloth, glued to a surface. Its possibilities can be seen in Braque’s
Bottle, Newspaper, Pipe, and Glass (FIG. 35-17), done in a variant of
collage called papier collé (“stuck paper”)—gluing assorted paper
shapes to a drawing or painting. Here, charcoal lines and shadows pro-
vide clues to the Cubist multiple views of various surfaces and objects.
Roughly rectangular strips of variously printed and colored paper
dominate the composition. The paper imprinted with wood grain and922 Chapter 35 EUROPE AND AMERICA, 1900 TO 194535-16Pablo Picasso,Still Life with Chair-Caning,1912. Oil and
oilcloth on canvas, 10– 85 1 13 – 4 . Musée Picasso, Paris.
This painting includes a piece of oilcloth imprinted with the photolitho-
graphed pattern of a cane chair seat. Framed with a piece of rope, the
still life challenges the viewer’s understanding of reality.35-15Robert Delaunay,Champs de Mars,or The Red Tower,1911.
Oil on canvas, 5 3 4 3 . Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago.
Orphism is a kind of color Cubism. Delaunay broke the Eiffel Tower into
a kaleidoscopic array of colored pieces. Some scholars have interpreted
the painting as a commentary on the collapse of society.1 ft.
1 in.