Crystal Cubism
Crystal Cubism (French: Cubisme cristal or Cubisme de cristal) is a distilled form of Cubism consistent with a shift, between 1915 and 1916, towards a strong emphasis on flat surface activity and large overlapping geometric planes. The primacy of the underlying geometric structure, rooted in the abstract, controls practically all of the elements of the artwork.[1]
This range of styles of painting and sculpture, especially significant between 1917 and 1920 (referred to alternatively as the Crystal Period, classical Cubism, pure Cubism, advanced Cubism, late Cubism, synthetic Cubism, or the second phase of Cubism), was practiced in varying degrees by a multitude of artists; particularly those under contract with the art dealer and collector Léonce Rosenberg—Jean Metzinger, Juan Gris, Albert Gleizes, Henri Laurens, and Jacques Lipchitz most noticeably of all. The tightening of the compositions, the clarity and sense of order reflected in these works, led to its being referred to by the French poet and art critic Maurice Raynal as 'crystal' Cubism.[2] Considerations manifested by Cubists prior to the outset of World War I—such as the fourth dimension, dynamism of modern life, the occult, and Henri Bergson's concept of duration—had now been vacated, replaced by a purely formal frame of reference that proceeded from a cohesive stance toward art and life.
As post-war reconstruction began, so too did a series of exhibitions at Léonce Rosenberg's Galerie de L'Effort Moderne: order and the allegiance to the aesthetically pure remained the prevailing tendency. The collective phenomenon of Cubism once again—now in its advanced revisionist form—became part of a widely discussed development in French culture. Crystal Cubism was the culmination of a continuous narrowing of scope in the name of a return to order; based upon the observation of the artists relation to nature, rather than on the nature of reality itself.[3]
Crystal Cubism, and its associative rappel à l’ordre, has been linked with an inclination—by those who served the armed forces and by those who remained in the civilian sector—to escape the realities of the Great War, both during and directly following the conflict. The purifying of Cubism from 1914 through the mid-1920s, with its cohesive unity and voluntary constraints, has been linked to a much broader ideological transformation towards conservatism in both French society and French culture. In terms of the separation of culture and life, the Crystal Cubist period emerges as the most important in the history of Modernism.[1]
Jean Metzinger, 1912–1913, L'Oiseau bleu, (The Blue Bird), oil on canvas, 230 × 196 cm, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
Robert Delaunay, 1913, L'Équipe de Cardiff, oil on canvas, 326 × 208 cm, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
Fernand Léger, 1912–13, Nude Model in the Studio (Le modèle nu dans l'atelier), oil on burlap, 128.6 × 95.9 cm, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
Albert Gleizes, 1912–13, Les Joueurs de football (Football Players), oil on canvas, 225.4 × 183 cm, National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Jean Metzinger, 1913, En Canot (Im Boot), oil on canvas, 146 × 114 cm, confiscated by the Nazis circa 1936, displayed at the Degenerate Art exhibition, and missing ever since.[12]
![Jean Metzinger, 1913, En Canot (Im Boot), oil on canvas, 146 × 114 cm, confiscated by the Nazis circa 1936, displayed at the Degenerate Art exhibition, and missing ever since.[12]](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/c/c5/Jean_Metzinger%2C_1913%2C_En_Canot%2C_oil_on_canvas%2C_146_x_114_cm%2C_missing_or_destroyed.jpg/133px-Jean_Metzinger%2C_1913%2C_En_Canot%2C_oil_on_canvas%2C_146_x_114_cm%2C_missing_or_destroyed.jpg)
Albert Gleizes, 1913, Les Bateaux de pêche (Fischerboote), oil on canvas, 165 × 111 cm, Tel Aviv Museum of Art
Roger de La Fresnaye, 1913, The Conquest of the Air, oil on canvas, 235.9 × 195.6 cm, Museum of Modern Art
Auguste Herbin, Galerie de L'Effort Moderne, March 1918
Jean Metzinger, Galerie de L'Effort Moderne, January 1919
Fernand Léger, Galerie de L'Effort Moderne, February 1919
Georges Braque, Galerie de L'Effort Moderne, March 1919
Juan Gris, Galerie L'Effort Moderne, April 1919
Léopold Survage, Galerie de L'Effort Moderne, November 1920
Joseph Csaky, Galerie de L'Effort Moderne, December 1920
Georges Valmier, Galerie de L'Effort Moderne, January 1921
Albert Gleizes, 1914, Woman with animals (La dame aux bêtes) Madame Raymond Duchamp-Villon, oil on canvas, 196.4 × 114.1 cm, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice
Juan Gris, September 1915, Jeu d'échecs (The Checkerboard), oil on canvas, 92.1 × 73 cm, Art Institute of Chicago
Jean Metzinger, 1916, Fruit and a Jug on a Table, oil and sand on canvas, 115.9 × 81 cm, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Diego Rivera, after August 1916, Maternidad, Angelina y et niño Diego (Motherhood, Angelina and the Child Diego), oil on canvas, 134.5 × 88.5 cm, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City
Georges Braque, 1917, La Joueuse de mandoline, oil on canvas, 92 × 65 cm, Lille Métropole Museum of Modern, Contemporary and Outsider Art
Gino Severini, 1919, Bohémien Jouant de L'Accordéon (The Accordion Player), Museo del Novecento, Milan
Louis Marcoussis, 1919, Violon, bouteilles de Marc et cartes (Violin, Marc bottles and cards), gouache and watercolor over charcoal on paper, 45.8 × 24.5 cm
Albert Gleizes, 1920, Figure, gouache on canvas, 91.4 × 76.2 cm, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, LACMA
