moldings provides an illusion whose concreteness contrasts with the
lightly rendered objects on the right. Five pieces of paper overlap each
other in the center of the composition to create a layering of flat planes
that both echo the space the lines suggest and establish the flatness of
the work’s surface. All shapes in the image seem to oscillate, pushing
forward and dropping back in space. Shading carves space into flat
planes in some places and turns planes into transparent surfaces in oth-
ers. The pipe in the foreground illustrates this complex visual interplay
especially well. Although it appears to lie on the newspaper, it is in fact
a form cut through the printed paper to reveal the canvas surface,
which Braque lightly modeled with charcoal. The artist thus kept his
audience aware that Bottle, Newspaper, Pipe, and Glass is an artwork, a
visual game to be deciphered, and not an attempt to reproduce nature.
Picasso explained the goals of Cubist collage:
Not only did we try to displace reality; reality was no longer in the
object....[In] the papier collé... [w]e didn’t any longer want to
fool the eye; we wanted to fool the mind....Ifa piece ofnewspaper
can be a bottle, that gives us something to think about in connection
with both newspapers and bottles, too.^9
Like all collage, the papier collé technique was modern in its
medium—mass-produced materials never before found in “high”
art—and modern in the way the artist embedded the art’s “message”
in the imagery and in the nature of these everyday materials.
Although most discussions of Cubism and collage focus on the
formal innovations they represented, it is important to note that the
public also viewed the revolutionary and subversive nature of Cub-
ism in sociopolitical terms. The public saw Cubism’s challenge to
artistic convention and tradition as an attack on 20th-century soci-ety. Many artists and writers of the pe-
riod allied themselves with various an-
archist groups whose social critiques
and utopian visions appealed to pro-
gressive thinkers. It was, therefore, not a
far leap to see radical art, like Cubism, as
having political ramifications. Indeed,
many critics in the French press consis-
tently equated Cubism with anarchism,
revolution, and disdain for tradition.
Picasso himself, however, never viewed
Cubism as a protest movement or even
different in kind from traditional paint-
ing (see “Picasso on Cubism,” page 924).
PICASSO,GUITAR Cubism did not just open new avenues for
representing form on two-dimensional surfaces. It also inspired new
approaches to sculpture. Picasso explored Cubism’s possibilities in
sculpture throughout the years he and Braque developed the style.
Picasso created Guitar (FIG. 35-18) in 1912. As in his Cubist paint-
ings, this sculpture operates at the intersection of two- and three-
dimensionality. Picasso took the form of a guitar (an image thatEurope, 1900 to 1920 92335-18Pablo Picasso,maquette for Guitar,1912. Cardboard, string,
and wire (restored), 2 11 – 4 1 1 7 –^12 . Museum of Modern Art,
New York.
In this model for a sculpture of sheet metal, Picasso presented what is
essentially a cutaway view of a guitar, allowing the viewer to examine
both surface and interior space, both mass and void.35-17Georges Braque,Bottle, News-
paper, Pipe, and Glass,1913. Charcoal and
various papers pasted on paper, 1 67 – 8
2 11 – 4 . Private collection, New York.
This Cubist collage of glued paper is a
visual game to be deciphered. The pipe
in the foreground, for example, seems
to lie on the newspaper, but it is actually
cut through the printed paper.1 in.
1 in.35-18APICASSO,
Three
Musicians,
1921.