Lecture 46: Cubism and Early Modern Painting
Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte, and as with these works, we are
left with a profound impression, but no storyline to support it.As I said of Manet’s works in general, we have left the world of shared
meaning behind in modern art and must now confront and deal with the
semiprivate world of the artist. I use the term semiprivate, because there are
many hints in all these paintings of the artist’s concerns, but the work is not
literal, and those who insist that pictures tell them a story will be frustrated,
puzzled, and unhappy with these paintings. To refuse to join in the artist’s
enterprise—which in great art is always to communicate something that the
artist ¿ nds compelling—is to lock oneself out of an experience that is life-
enhancing. I generally believe that when an artist says something new, or in
a new way, and I don’t understand it, the problem is mine. It is up to me to
work at understanding what the artist is trying to do.Perhaps Picasso can sum up my feelings in this regard. Here he is, in 1923,
speaking on Cubism, “The fact that for a long time cubism has not been
understood and that even today there are people who cannot see anything in
it, means nothing. I do not read English; an English book is a blank book to
me. This does not mean that the English language does not exist, and why
should I blame anybody else but myself if I cannot understand what I know
nothing about?” ŶGeorges Braque:
Table with Pipe, 1914, oil with sand and gesso on canvas, 15 x 18”
(38 x 45.7 cm), National Museum of Modern Art, Pompidou Center,
Paris, France.
Paul Cézanne:
Four Bathers, 1888–90, oil on canvas, 28 ¾ x 36 ¼” (73 x 92 cm), New
Carlsberg Glyptothek, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Mont-Saint-Victoire, 1904–06, oil on canvas, 27 ½ x 35 ¼”
(69.8 x 89.5 cm), Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, USA.Works Discussed