I really dig this Violin and Candlestick oil painting by French Cubist artist, Georges Braque. This was done in 1910.

With most Cubist works, I have no idea what is in the picture. With the help of the title, I can tell what this is. I can actually see the fragments of definitely a violin and maybe a candlestick. That’s what’s cool about Cubist art. It portrays a normal object; in this case, a violin; and breaks it up into basically cubes and reassembled into another form. Kind of like a puzzle. It’s just a different form of representation.

Not sure why Georges chose these objects to depict. I don’t know if he played the violin… He probably had a candlestick lying around… but the shapes are spectacular. It really makes a great composition

When I think of Cubism artists, I immediately think of Pablo Picasso. I think most do. But actually, Braque was a friend and contemporary of Picasso. They both basically invented Cubism, though Picasso gets the credit. [Braque had a quieter personality].They literally painted right next to each other, each doing their own thing, yet the paintings look the same. It’s hard to tell who painted what.

You can see Violin and Candlestick today at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

#art, #artist, #arthistory, #cubismart, #cubistart, #inspiration, #georgesbraque, #modernart, #picasso