In today’s class, we discussed analytic cubism and synthetic cubism. Analytic cubism is based on analysis in form. We looked at a very well-known example of analytic cubism, Picasso’s “Ma Jolie,” made from 1911 to 1912. The color scheme is reduced to earthy colors. The brushstrokes are repetitive, making the painting seem flat with no real landscape. There are mainly just straight lines: diagonals, vertical, and horizontal. The forms are broken down into specific shapes, which is influenced from Cezanne.
A synthetic cubism example we looked at was Boccioni’s “States of Mind I: Farewells”, made in 1911. Synthetic refers to bringing things together. Deconstructing what you look at comes from analytic cubism, whereas bringing it back together is though synthetic cubism. Boccioni’s artwork is about the Milan train station. Industrialization was very new to Italy, it did not really occur until after World War II. Boccioni is celebrating this new industrialization. He claims cars to be more beautiful than ancient antiquities. He is a fan of modern developments compared to ancient legacies.