Tackling Cubism: Carl Einstein, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler and Vincenc Kramář.

abstract

Three central texts on Cubism written in the first decades of the 20th century distinguish themselves by the effort of following the discoveries and formulations of Picasso, Braque, Leger and Juan Gris in an original way. The authors, Carl Einstein, Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler and Vincenc Kramář, made creative readings of Cubism and defended the painters’ quest for establishing new understandings of space based on experience. They discarded the metaphysical conception of space as an indication of spiritual value, strove to avoid descriptions based on feelings, understood the experience of art from the interpenetration of physical and psychic elements. Here are some characteristics of these three texts.

keywords:
cubism; form; vision; art theory