The Cubist Painters

Documents of Twentieth-Century Art

by Guillaume Apollinaire, Peter Read

Guillaume Apollinaire's only book on art, The Cubist Painters, was first published in 1913. This essential text in twentieth-century art presents the poet and critic's aesthetic meditations on nine Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Marie Laurencin, Juan Gris, Fernand Leger, Francis Picabia, and Marcel Duchamp. As Picasso's closest friend and Marie Laurencin's lover, Apollinaire witnessed the development of Cubism firsthand. This collection of essays and reviews, written between 1905 and 1912, is a milestone in the history of art criticism, valued today as both a work of reference and a classic example of modernist creative writing. In addition to a faithful and fluid translation of Apollinaire's text, Peter Read provides his own scholarly analysis of its importance in the history of modernism. He examines Apollinaire's art criticism, his relationship to the Cubist movement, and, more specifically, the genesis of Cubist Painters through its various revisions and proofs. Supported by all forty-five plates from the original edition, this new volume brings Apollinaire's vitality and vision to life for a new generation.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Art History, French Literature, France, Poetry

100 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1913

About the author

Italian-French poet Guillaume Apollinaire, originally Wilhelm Apollinaris de Kostrowitzky, led figures in avant-garde literary and artistic circles.

A Polish mother bore Wilhelm Albert Włodzimierz Apolinary Kostrowicki, this known writer and critic.

People credit him among the foremost of the early 20th century with coining the word surrealism and with writing Les Mamelles de Tirésias (1917), the play of the earliest works, so described and later used as the basis for an opera in 1947.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guillau...

Reviews

[Laurent De Maertelaer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Boeiende en originele kunstkritieken van de grote Apollinaire, in het bijzonder over het kubisme, een stroming die de dichter voor zijn ogen zag ontstaan en als goede vriend van Picasso vanop de eerste rij meemaakte. De kunstenaarsportretten zijn klassiek maar toch slaagt Apollinaire erin om via een creatieve kijk te verrassen. Het pamflet 'De nieuwe tijdgeest en de dichter' waarmee deze bundel afsluit is schitterend. Knappe vertaling van Jan Pieter van de Sterre, die ook het uitvoerige notenapparaat verzorgde. Met een tiental kleurenillustraties en een leeslijst met aanbevolen lectuur.

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

I made the proofing this book for Free Literature and it will be published by Project Gutenberg.

Images available at Internet Archive

CONTENTS

Pablo PICASSO—-Georges BRAQUE—-Jean METZINGER
Albert GLEIZES—-Juan GRIS—-Mlle Marie LAURENCIN
Fernand LÉGER—-Francis PICABIA—-Marcel DUCHAMP
DUCHAMP-VILLON, etc.

Page 22
La nouvelle école de peinture porte le nom de cubisme; il lui fut donné par dérision en automne 1908 par Henri Matisse qui venait de voir un tableau représentant des maisons dont l'apparence cubique le frappa vivement.

Cette esthétique nouvelle s'élabora d'abord dans l'esprit d'André Derain, mais les [oe]uvres les plus importantes et les plus audacieuses qu'elle produisit aussitôt furent celles d'un grand artiste que l'on doit aussi considérer comme un fondateur: Pablo Picasso dont les inventions corroborées par le bon sens de Georges Braque qui exposa, dès 1908, un tableau cubiste au Salon des Indépendants, se trouvèrent formulées dans les études de Jean Metzinger qui exposa le premier portrait cubiste (c'était le mien) au Salon des Indépendants en 1910 et fit admettre aussi, la même année, des [oe]uvres cubistes par le jury du Salon d'Automne. C'est en 1910 également que parurent aux Indépendants des tableaux de Robert Delaunay, de Marie Laurencin, de Le Fauconnier, qui ressortissaient à la même école.

[Kirti Upreti · Rating 4 out of 5]

My rendezvous with art history was triggered by the book 'Parallel Worlds' by Michio Kaku earlier this year. While explaining the 11 dimensions in m-theory, Kaku drew analogy from Picasso's cubist paintings and I got stuck with the idea.

And that was the day that has led me to finally reading this book today. I was able to understand, in my own humble capacity, a little bit of impressionism, neo-impressionism, the works of Magritte and Mondrian but Cubism was something I had been really struggling with.

Now I can say I understand Picasso's mind to a small extent. How would it feel to alienate yourself from the three dimensions while take a new look at the world from the dimension of time. Well, the world is seldom able to draw a line between insanity and genius. Perhaps, there is none.

[Castles · Rating 4 out of 5]

A surprisingly good book. Starting with the cryptic essay of Apollinaire about cubism, than with a really good discussion about cubism, mostly Picasso and his works, and ends with short biographies of some of the leading characters of the movement.

[Myriam · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pureté, unité, vérité.

[RosaDG · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a document written during the origin and development of Cubism, at the beginning of the 20th century, this book is a bibliographical reference. Since, on the one hand, this first-hand observer of the exhibitions that took place and of the evolution of the different painters, will be able to better narrate their first advances and pictorial concepts. But, on the other hand, when referring to a certain number of painters who, as friends and poet, frequent his relationships, he manages to sketch a kind of verification of what has just consolidated as a pioneering artistic movement and groundbreaking with traditional painting.It is as interesting as Valeriano Bozal's epilogue, which helps us to contextualize it even better in its time.

XX. mendearen hasieran Kubismoaren sorreran eta garapenean idatzitako dokumentu gisa, liburu hau erreferentzia bibliografikoa da. Alde batetik, egin ziren erakusketen eta margolari desberdinen bilakaeraren lehen eskuko behatzaile honek beren lehen aurrerapenak eta kontzeptu piktorikoak hobeto kontatzeko gai izango denez. Baina, bestetik, lagun eta poeta gisa bere harremanak maiz egiten dituzten zenbait margolari aipatzen dituenean, mugimendu artistiko aitzindari gisa eta pintura tradizionalarekin aitzindari gisa sendotu berri denaren egiaztapen moduko bat zirriborratzea lortzen du.Valeriano Bozalen epilogoa bezain interesgarria, bere garaian are hobeto testuinguratzen laguntzen diguna.


Como documento escrito durante el origen y desarrollo del cubismo, a principios del siglo XX, este libro es una referencia bibliográfica. Ya que, por un lado, este observador de primera mano de las exposiciones que tuvieron lugar y de la evolución de los distintos pintores, podrá narrar mejor sus primeros avances y conceptos pictóricos. Pero, por otro, al referirse a un cierto número de pintores que, como amigos y poeta, frecuentan sus relaciones, logra esbozar una especie de verificación de lo que acaba de consolidarse como un movimiento artístico pionero y rompedor con la pintura tradicional. Tan interesante como el epílogo de Valeriano Bozal, que nos ayuda a contextualizarlo aún mejor en su época.

[Clara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pas mal! Ver la reseña de "Sobre el cubismo"

[Ismael Sainz · Rating 2 out of 5]

Libro más interesante por su valor como documento histórico (1912) en la toma de conciencia propia del cubismo como movimiento revolucionario de la pintura y del arte que por otra cosa. Primero hace una especie de manifiesto sobre el arte nuevo y luego enumera las gracias de distintos pintores cubistas. Prescindible.

[Selin]

Thesis

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite opaque.