French artist Georges Braque is rightfully considered the founder of the modernist direction of painting - cubism. Although, according to art critics, the first cubists were Paul Cezanne and Pablo Picasso. However, Braque has the most works written in this manner.
Georges Braque did not limit his work to painting and graphics. The artist was engaged in the creation of stained glass; sophisticated and expressive sculpture that echoed the Greek archaic; worked as a decorator in a theater; he made magnificent jewelry, which the fashionistas of that time were happy to wear; he also mastered many techniques of applied art.
Biography
The future artist was born in 1882 in the suburb of Paris - Argenteuil. This place was once praised by the Impressionists. The Georges family owned an interior workshop - they were engaged in decoration. From an early age, his father taught him his craft, taught him to work as a decorator and understand the aesthetics of living quarters. And when the son grew up, the head of the family sent him to study as a decorator in Le Havre. Later, the young master was still studying at the Paris School of Fine Arts.
It was this educational institution that helped him get acquainted with new trends in painting. Georges was especially attracted by the works of Matisse, and he became friends with a circle of "Fauves". During that period of his life, he constantly painted landscapes that were filled with the southern sun and bright colors of Provence - they seemed to be saturated with the riot of nature in the south of France. These were very decorative works, but there were already notes of a new direction - cubism, because the clarity of the composition distinguished these landscapes from the paintings of the Fauves.
Cubism
A little later, Braque became interested in the art of Cezanne and Picasso, which led to a noticeable change in the artist's style. The former fluid forms on his canvases were replaced by powerful geometric volumes; bright colors became muted: yellowish-ocher, greenish and gray-blue tones appeared, like in Cezanne.
An amusing incident is connected with Braque's painting "Houses in Estaque": when the famous artist Matisse saw it, he exclaimed: "What kind of cubes are these?" Hence the name of the trend in painting - "Cubism", which was popular in the XX century.
Beginning in 1910, the artist slightly changed his style of painting: his cubes are becoming smaller, their edges fill the entire canvas, have different shapes and are fancifully arranged on the canvas. It was no longer an image of some object - rather, in his work, Braque sought to convey a certain image, symbol, his idea of the object.
These were very original, but completely divorced from reality plots with a free play of colored planes, contours, various objects, inscriptions. Braque often used decorative effects that were completely new for painting of that time, which created a sense of life and the rhythm of a big city.
New trends
However, after the twenties of the 20th century, cubism began to go out of fashion, and Braque began to use only its individual elements in his paintings. He returns to still lifes, in which the sophistication of color is combined with a variety of expressive means.
In the 20s and 30s, he painted portraits, sea views, interiors with interesting and rich content: still lifes and female figures. It was already almost surrealism with its poetry and spatial breadth.
Georges Braque passed away in 1963 and was buried in Paris.
Interesting fact: in 2010, five paintings by Braque were stolen from the Parisian Museum of Modern Art.
