Paul Gaugin is one of the most famous painters of the 19th – early 20th century. He produced a great influence on the development of art and created a number of works of art that made him quite a popular painter. He was born in 1848 in Paris and began his work there but it was not painting as one may think, he worked as a stockbroker while painting was his passion, which he dedicated his free time to. After his marriage he began to work with Camille Pissaro who was Impressionist by style and certainly influenced Gaugin’s artistic work. In 1884 he and his family moved to Denmark where Gaugin attempted to work as a businessman but failed and next year he left hid family in Denmark and returned to Paris where he began to work as a professional painter. During his work he got acquainted with other artists who were quite famous and played an important role in the art development of that time, among them were such artists as Emile Bernard, Charles Laval, and finally Vincent van Gogh. He was definitely influenced by some of these painters. As a result he gradually evaluated from an impressionist as he was when he closely cooperated with Camille Pissaro to synthetism and symbolism. His career as a painter is a kind of transformation of an artist from naturalism to abstraction and symbolism that were so typical for his later works. His works that are referred to a symbolist style are characterized by ample bright colors, thick and flat shapes. Another peculiarity of his paintings was the lack of perspective that made his work particularly intriguing and, to a certain extent, mysterious that is achieved through the use of symbolism and could be interpreted differently according to the personality of a viewer. Probably, such a shift in style was the result of not only communication with other artists but the result of his active way of life, for it is well known fact that he traveled a lot and lived quite a long time in Panama, Martinique and, finally, Tahiti. His last residence was the Marquesas Islands where he died after a long disease in 1903.

Now, it would be better to return to his artistic work and brief analysis of some of his paintings in order to better understand his influence on the modern art and the symbolist movement in particular. In this context the most suitable for analysis are his late works painted in the end of the 19th century. For instance, Words of the Devil, which was created in 1892. This painting is full of symbolism and it is not so easy to reveal all its complexity and to guess what the author did guised in his picture. Probably, the masked kneeling figure is the devil himself and the title serves to enforce such an impression. As for the woman, according to different specialists she may symbolize the western image of Eve after the Fall. But it is not simply a traditional image of Eve, this image has some oriental traits and characteristics, it is full of thought and knowledge. This woman symbolize something eternal like life and death, like struggle of good and evil. It is also noteworthy that Gauguin did not forget about self-portraits in his works.

Next painting, which will be discussed, is to certain extent similar, or it would be better to say stylistically closer to the previous one, I mean his painting By the Sea, which was created practically at the same period of his life in 1892. However, a deep analysis reveals that these two paintings are quite different because By the Sea is deprived of ampleness of symbolism though it is still the work which marked Gauguin’s preferences to the symbolist movement. Through the images of native people depicted in their everyday life the painter intended to convey to the viewer all the attractiveness of a traditional life of local population and provoke the thought about possible impact of the western civilization on this world which seems to be a kind of paradise.

Another painting, which was created five years later in 1897, is The Bathers. He created this work when he returned to Tahiti after his trip to Paris. The peculiarity of this painting in comparison with two above mentioned is less distinct clear images, they are quite soft and even uncertain. The painter tried to depict the local ‘paradise’ but this work is characterized by higher spirituality, it seems to have more profound and symbolic meaning through the use of expressive colors, the images are full of symbolism conveying something monumental and timeless. This painting looks like a dream, a dream about paradise or something devine.

Thus, all the life and work of Paul Gauguin is the story of evaluation of a painter from a natural-oriented impressionist to a convinced symbolist. His contribution to the symbolist movement is obviously significant because he influenced many other painters that lived after him and definitely he created his own style of painting that brought him popularity and interest from the part of specialists and connoisseurs of art.

Synthetic Cubism. Braque and Picasso.

Synthetic Cubism was one of the modernist art movements existing in the beginning of the 20th century. The number of artist working in this style was quite large but if we look at Cubism of the beginning of the 20th century we will find the names of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, in first turn, which, actually, were the leaders of this movement. Firstly, it is necessary to give a definition to the notion of Synthetic Cubism and the role of Braque and Picasso in this movement. One of the main peculiarities of Synthetic Cubism is the pasting of an actual piece of oilcloth onto the canvas. It was like a part of reality, of our real life incorporated into invented world of the artist’s imagination. It was quite original and innovative combination introduced, by the way, by Pablo Picasso. It was really the idea which could change the general view on art and make artists as well as ordinary amateurs of art to think differently about the art at large and modern art in particular. As for the most famous works of Synthetic Cubism traditionally they are collages. These collages are not only visual but conceptual as well that certainly differs this style from any other. Certainly it is impossible to understand all the effectiveness of this style without even a brief analysis of a painting that belongs to Synthetic Cubism. Consequently, it is necessary to focus the attention on the works of such representatives of this artistic movement as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.

First of all, I would start with George Braque, though it is hard to divide the contribution of both Braque and Picasso in the development of Synthetic Cubism because both artists were professionally close to each other but, on the other hand, each of them had his own particular features and style. So, Georges Braque developed his skills due to study and communication with different artists, including Matisse, Derain, Dufy but the most significant event for his artistic career was acquaintance with Pablo Picasso. Due to his influence, or probably under the mutual influence, he developed as a synthetic cubist. It is evident from such of his works as Woman with a Guitar (1913), Glass, Carafe and Newspapers (1914), Fruit on a Tablecloth (1925), Boats (1909) and others. The latter may serve as one of examples of cubist inclinations in Braque’s works. This painting is quite simple, even plain but at the same time it seems as it is taken from our everyday life and it produces an impression of a painting taken from a real life, probably, due to simplicity of its colors and images. On the other hand, the form is typically cubistic and quite distinct. We may also say that the artist mainly uses earth colors not bright ones that is also quite natural for Cubism as well as the impression that the painting is constantly moving due to such lines as we can see. Actually, this painting may be regarded at as a significant step to the development in the direction of Synthetic Cubism.

As for Pablo Picasso, firstly, it is worth saying that his skills of a painter had been developing from the early childhood by his father who was an art teacher. Later, he became a professional artist and, as it has already been mentioned, together with Georges Braque played an important role in the development of Synthetic Cubism. During his formation as an artist he was greatly impressed and to certain extent influenced by such painters as Toulouse-Lautrec, Courbet, Manet and some others. Naturally, he was not a convinced cubist from the very beginning of his career. We may trace different styles in his works, namely realism, caricature but we can definitely say that the most successful of his works belong to Synthetic Cubism. 1912 may be named as a turning point in his career because exactly this year he created Still-Life with Chair-Caning, which was probably one of the first examples of Synthetic Cubism. This oval picture is a café table but peculiarity of this work is that this painting is more than a simple café table. In fact, it is the first collage which was created with the help of real materials glued to the painting that produced a strong impression on a viewer by such a combination of a painted and real world.

Thus, I may conclude that Synthetic Cubism became really innovative style which made many artists reevaluate their views and an important role in the development of this style played Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque who gradually came to such a style and developed it according to their vision and ideas of the future art.

Piet Mondrian and Kasimir Malevich

Piet Mondrian and Kasimir Malevich are two representatives of the early 20th century art who became famous all over the world due to their work. It is always quite a difficult task to compare two artists because every person has his or her own preferences and it is hard to remain objective enough in order to analyze them properly. Speaking about Piet Mondrian and Kasimir Malevich, from the very beginning it is necessary to say that their style is to a certain extent similar, both Piet Mondrian and Kasimir Malevich worked in the similar style, their works are examples of cubist movement in the 20th century art but still they sustained their own peculiarities which differ them from other artists and from each other as well, equally similarities in their works make us speak about them as representatives of one and the same movement.

On the other hand, we cannot estimate to what extent they are similar or different without discussing their artistic works. That is why it is necessary to dwell upon some of their works and trace existing similarities and differences in their style. Piet Mondrian is a famous Dutch abstract painter who is also known as one of the founder of a new style, called neoplasticism that represented an intuitive combination of primary colors and black lines. As it has already been mentioned, he was greatly influenced by cubists. In his works he did not intend to reproduce the real world as well as Kasimir Malevich did, but, on the contrary, the intuition was primary for him. We may say that for both artists the inner, sensual world is more important than external, real one. It becomes obvious when we compare their paintings. For instance, Mondrian’s Composition in Red, White, and Black, 1936 and Malevich’s Black Square, 1913. Both these paintings are oriented on the inner, spiritual world. Composition in Red, White and Black is a well-balanced work in which the painter carefully arranged all colors and lines at the same time he does not remain emphatic on one specific feature or line that makes this painting quite different from Malevich’s Black Square in which the dominance of one primary black color is obvious that creates certain effect which overwhelms the viewer. Furthermore, critics estimate that Malevich does not pay so much attention to the graphic, geometric form as Mondrian does. For the latter the geometric form is of paramount importance while for the former the main thing is to convey his message through the dominant color that, in its turn, contradict to the main principle of Piet Mondrien, the principle of equilibrium and ultimate harmony. However, for both of them the square serves as the mean of expression of their feelings and ideas. As for particular feature of Mondrian’s painting it is also necessary to single out the creation of an innovative two-dimensional space that was later used by many other modern artists and characterize Mondrian’s works.

Practically the same trends we may observe in other works of these two painters such as The Red Tree, 1908, painted by Piet Mondrian and Suprematism, 1915, created by Kasimir Malevich. The latter work characterizes the whole conception of Malevichs’s ideas about art and abstraction in art. As Mondrian he persuades the viewer that there is something beyond the image that could be realized only on the perceptional level, the level of feelings. For instance, Mondrian’s tree may symbolize the life itself which appears and dies while Malevich’s painting conveys the artist’s message through abstract geometric figures.

Thus, taking into account all above mentioned it is possible to say that both Piet Mondrian and Kasimir Malevich made a great contribution into the development of abstract art and despite all similarities and differences that exist between their works serves as evidence of a progress that abstract art made in the direction of diversity and creation of a new style, or a new art because through their works these artists tended to create a pure form, a pure art that certainly made us look at the art in another way. Their paintings provoke not only our thought but our feelings as well, in this sense Malevich’s Black Square is a good sample of the modern art. Anyway, we should remember that both artists contributed into the development of art at large and abstract art in particular, they introduced new techniques and new ideas which were innovative for the rapidly progressing art of the early 20th century.

Roger Benjamin, “Matisse in Morocco”

The early 20th century is characterized by the progress of different modernist movements and general development of art. The cultural or it would be better to say the artistic center of the world was Paris. This city was a kind of Mecca for artists and a lot of famous artists that lived at the end of 19th – beginning of the 20th centuries studied and worked there. It was an undeniable fact that Paris was associated with progressive ideas in modern art. However, not everybody shared this point of view. Roger Benjamin, unlike many of his countrymen and colleagues, focused his attention not only on Paris and other developed artistic centers of the modern culture but he mainly studied a so-called colonial art and its trends.

One of his works dedicated to this problem is the essay “Matisse in Marocco” where he raises the problem of art in French colonies in North Africa, mainly populated by oriental peoples. In this work Roger Benjamin tries to give us his interpretation of the notion of orientalism and the Oriental art as the whole. He attempts to analyze it in a historical perspective, taking into consideration the existing conditions in which Maghrib countries, particularly Morocco developed. Such countries were traditionally treated as periphery to the metropolis, i.e. France and other developed countries. Naturally, the same attitude prevailed in relation to the Oriental art. A different attitude we find in the essay of Roger Benjamin who treated very seriously the problem of the development of art in Oriental countries and its role for the world culture. It is necessary to say that the notion of orientalism appears quite rarely at critical works of that time that certainly makes this particular essay as well as other works written by the author very important.

As it has already been said his understanding of existing oriental art was quite different from common opinion. One of the reasons why the opinion of many critics and specialists in the domain of the art and the point of view if Roger Benjamin were so different is the fact that many experts sincerely believed that the Oriental art is almost dead, in other words they did not believe that it could not develop any more and, actually, its development had already stopped, consequently, the modern art occupied the dominant position in the 20th century art all over the world. However, Roger Benjamin estimated that it was not true or at least it was only a misinterpretation of the current reality. He believed that the Oriental art, on the contrary, continues to develop and the current situation that he observed in the beginning of the 20th century was just one of the steps in the development of this art. It means that, according to the author of the essay, it would be a mistake to treat orientalism as a decaying branch of art that had no prospects in the nearest future.

Probably, he was only partially right because the independent development of art in the country or countries which are colonies is hardly possible. As a rule, in such a situation such countries, regardless whether they will it or not, imitate the metropolis in all spheres of life, including art. Naturally, the local art would be in decline that actually stated the main part of specialists. On the other hand, Roger Benjamin is, to a certain extent, right because any culture would sustain its own peculiarities in any conditions, even if they were so disastrous for local culture as it was in the case of Morocco. So, the author could simply be misled by such peculiarities of local national culture. Consequently, his idea about the treatment of the Oriental art as a different art movement existing in colonies which leads to reevaluation of not only national Moroccan or any other Oriental art or culture but also all modernist movements at large.

Thus, taking into account all above mentioned it is possible to make the conclusion that Roger Benjamin’s ideas, reasonable and persuasive they seem to be, area bit misleading though, anyway, at certain points he may be right and his work is worth studying because he raised problems of the Oriental art which was in decline in his time and, consequently, was not in the center of attention of connoisseurs of art. So, we may say that his essay “Matisse in Morocco” is an important work on the art of the early 20th century and it is necessary to study such works carefully in order to realize all the processes that took place in art and culture in this period of time.