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Notes on Cubism
Author(s): Carl Einstein and Charles W. Haxthausen
Reviewed work(s):
Source: October, Vol. 107, Carl Einstein (Winter, 2004), pp. 158-168
Published by: The MIT Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3397600 .
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Notes on Cubism*
CARL EINSTEIN
Translatedand introducedbyCharlesW. Haxthausen
Carl Einstein's writingon modern art is to a large extent defined by his
encounterwithCubism.Althoughnot mentionedby name, Cubism informedhis
earlytheoreticalessay"Totality"(a draftof the firstsectionof the textwas originally
titled"Picasso"),and his NegroSculpture
(1915). Yet not until 1926 did he publisha
account
of
Cubist
fullydeveloped
painting,in the firstedition of his Artofthe
Twentieth
"Notes
on
Cubism"
(1929), writtenfor Documents,offersa
Century.1
condensed version of that interpretation,now embedded within the broader
approach to the changingfunctionsof imagesthatcharacterized"Methodological
Aphorisms"(1929).
Among early interpretationsof Cubism, only Einstein's, from his initial
essaysof 1912 to his Georges
Braqueof 1934,can be justlycomparedwithDaniel-Henry
Kahnweiler'sTheRiseofCubism(1920) in its probing,nuanced analysisand intellectual substance.Yet the two Germansofferessentiallyantitheticalinterpretations
of thisart. For Kahnweilerthe fundamentalproblemfacingCubistpaintingwas a
strictlyaestheticone thathad emergedwithImpressionism:the conflictbetween
illusionisticrepresentationand an increasinglyautonomous pictorialstructure.
In the firstphase of Cubist painting,Braque and Picasso attemptedto reconcile
this conflictby adapting objects to the paintingsurfacethroughextremedistortions of form.Yet this discrepancybetween the beholder's memoryimages and
the distortedobjects he encountered in the pictorial representationwas deeply
disturbing.In 1910,writesKahnweiler,Braque and Picasso founda solutionto this
conflict;they eliminated perplexing deformationsof the motifby adopting a
nonillusionistic
schematicrenderingof the object'spositionin space,supplemented
the
inclusion
of "real details" (lettering,clay pipes, etc.), integratedinto the
by
structuralwhole. These details,augmentedbythe painting'stitle,were "a stimulus
*
1.
"Notessur le cubisme,"Documents
1, no. 3 (1929), pp. 146-55.
Carl Einstein,Die Kunstdes20.Jahrhunderts
1926), pp. 56-86.
(Berlin:Propylaen-Verlag,
OCTOBER 107, Winter
Institute
2004,pp. 158-68. ? 2004 October
Magazine,Ltd.and Massachusetts
ofTechnology.
on Cubism"( 2004 Fannei& WalzVerlag,
"Notes
Berlin.
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Pablo Picasso. Man with a Guitar. 1912-13. ? 2004 Estate ofPablo Picasso/
ArtistsRightsSociety(ARS), New York.CourtesyPhiladelphia Museum ofArt.
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160
OCTOBER
which carries with it memory images. Combining the 'real' stimulus and the
scheme of forms,these images constructthe finishedobject in the mind."In the
end, Kahnweilerrelatesthe process to the Kantian synthesisdescribedin the first
Critique,in which differingrepresentationsin the mind are reconciled in their
the paintingis reconciled
diversityin a single act of cognition.2And, ultimately,
withthe known,familiarworldas given.
Einstein,by contrast,locates the origins of the Cubist project not merely
withina problematic of painting but withina larger epistemological crisis: "a
skepticism concerning the identity of objects." For him there is no conflict
betweenrepresentation
and structure,
forthe Cubist'sbriefis not therepresentation
of objects,but a pictorialfigurationof visual (and mental) process.Moreover,for
Einstein the conflictbetween memoryimages and Cubist form,so troublingto
Kahnweiler,marksa salutaryhistoricbreak with the past. In assertingthat the
Cubists "underminedmemory,in which ideas [notions]are reconciled with one
And
another,"he seems to be pointedlycontradictingKahnweiler'sinterpretation.
forgood measure he declares,"Their greatestachievementis theirdestructionof
mnemonic images." Purged of memoryimages, the viewernow experiences the
object not as somethingthatexistsapart, but as a functionof his own vision,his
own cognitiveprocesses.The paintingis an autonomoustotality,
unverifiablevis-avis reality.It becomes "the distinguishingsign of the visuallyactivehuman being,
constructinghis own universeand refusingto be the slaveof givenforms."
It is clear that there exists an abyssbetween art historyand the scientific
studyof art,and thatboth disciplineshave become altogetherdubious. When art
historywishes to be more than a calendar, it quite naivelyborrowsill-founded
judgments and ideas. Withinthese ideas the individualworksmelt into generalities without contours, and the concrete deed dissolves into a sort of vague
aestheticism;on the otherhand, a thousandanecdotes and dates of arthistorydo
not touch at all upon technical questions of the work of art or on the forms
themselves.Ultimatelyone ends up withan anecdotal psychologythattransforms
the historyof artintoa novel.As forthatpedanticmethodthatconsistsof pictorial
description,we wish to point out that the structureof language is such that it
breaks up the synchronicpower of the picture and that the heterogeneityof
wordsdestroysthe overallimpression.
A psychological method presents other difficulties.In the firstplace we
knowof none thatis withoutproblems,none thatsucceeds in definingits object.
Psychoanalysisitselfhas never pretended to constitutethe totalityof a method,
and psychologistswho have previouslyattempted to create a psychologyhave
2.
Daniel-HenryKahnweiler,The Rise of Cubism,trans. Henry Aronson (New York: Wittenborn,
Schultz,Inc., 1949), pp. 1, 9-12.
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Noteson Cubism
161
constructedtheirobject in such a way thatwhat was properlypsychologicalwas
dissipated.In any case, psychologyremainsincapable of masteringsomethingas
complex as the workof art, conditioned as it is by a psychologicalpolarity-on
the one hand the genesis of the work,on the other the beholder-considering
that the psychological, in contrast to quantitative physics,allows for entirely
effects.
contradictory
There remainsa no less formidablephenomenon: the act ofjudgment and
its terminology.
Ideas change as rapidlyas fleaschange humans. In the firstplace
one would have to writethe historyof aestheticjudgments to bring some order
into thismuseumof arbitrary
terminologies,and begin to discernthe foundations
of these ideas and thesejudgments,in order ultimatelyto determinewhethera
hierarchyof such values existsat all. In generalwe believethata painting,whichis
a concreterealization,disappearsin the act of criticismbecause it servesas a mere
pretext for generalized formulaswhenever someone wishes to endow a risky
opinion witha universalvalue bythe trickof generalization.The resultis nothing
more than a wittyparaphrase,thanksto which the workof art is neatlyinserted
intoits culturalcontext,whereit disappearsas a mere symptom,
losingits technical
And
then
there
is
the
that
specificity.
lyricalparaphrase,
revengeof failedpoetslet us call themerrandboysof poetry.
The main problem remains the differencebetween these two categories,
thatof the pictureand thatof language.
To unhingethe worldof objectsis to call into question the guaranteesof our
existence.The naive person believes that the appearance of the human figureis
the mosttrustworthy
experience thata human being can have of himself;he dares
not doubt thiscertainty,
althoughhe suspectsthe presence of inner experiences.
He imagines that in contrastto this abyss of inner experience the immediate
experience of his own body constitutesthe mostreliablebiological unit. His body,
the instrumentof all spatial experience,seems to him such an infalliblemachine
thathe uses it to representwhatis mostdurable and vital:his gods and his dead.
In the past, it was the custom to worship images, images that were the
doubles of gods and the deceased, and in thiswayone strengthenedone's belief
in a worldthatseemed all the more certainforbeing so littlesubjectto proof.The
mortal human body became the sign for the immortals.From a eugenic standpoint these idealized archetypesbroke all the records,and the optimismof the
breeders was glorifiedfromthe Parthenon to the postcard. Someday someone
should point out the banality,eroticism,and optimismthatunderliethe academic
aesthetic.... Everythingproblematicwas countered withan as yet uncorrupted
entity,the human figure.What servileoptimismand whatsolace forthe uglyand
the losers who were thus able to identifywitha gigolo who pulls a thornout of a
god's foot,or witha fatdryad!
The possibilityof duplicatingthingscalmed those who feared death. The
world of pictorialdoubles fulfilleda longingforeternity.
Weakened aesthetically
in order to reinforce the stabilityof reality,images proved more secure and
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162
OCTOBER
durable than human beings. Tautology was insurance against death, and the
certaintyof thingswas confirmedby images. One practicedan ancestorcult with
objects; stilllifes-symbolsforthejoys of ownership-immortalizeddead turkeys,
whata fraud!
grapes,and asparagus.... Eternity,
One put one's trustin conventionalobjects,thosecomfortablesignals,familiar
in theireffects.Pictorialpositivism,
biologicalindolence.Realitywas hypertrophied;
one graftedonto it the gonads of evolution,jammed itwithan optimisticteleology
thatwas nothingmore than an ersatzmetaphysics.
Around 1908 a new sentimentbegan to gatherstrength:the indifferenceof
pictorialtechniciansvis-a-visthe motifevolved into a skepticismconcerningthe
identityof objects.
Sentimentalpeople could easilysuspecta pessimismat workhere.... Reality
began a death struggle,and at the same time there was an interestin archaic,
mythic,and tectonicepochs. A long-prepareddualism between formand object
now became manifest:the real was rejectedas a criterionfor the image; thiswas
the end of thatoptimisticunityof realityand image. The image was no longeran
allegory,no longera fictionof anotherreality.The rightsof realitywere therefore
drasticallycurtailed,and in thissense one can speak of the lethalpowerof the work
of art.A tangledrealitydisintegrates
when confrontedwithunmediatedfacts;one
could speak of an asceticismanalogous to thatof the mystics,of a retreatinto the
regionsof autonomousvision.
Historyis not unitary:differentgenerationscreate differentvalue systems
thatare rooted in theirrespectivepresents.One can discerna shiftof axis in the
course of history.The models that up until now were considered classical
(Polykleitosor Myron,forexample) todaylook like the virtuososof a degenerate
classicismand the end of a grand tradition,just as Socrates no longer looks like
the initiatorof philosophybut rather like the culmination of the great age of
mythicantiquity.Characteristicof mythicepochs is the sense forgrand construction and tectonicforms,a hierarchyof formsthatlater disappeared withthe use
of tactile details and pictorial equivalents.Frontalityand surfacesdominate. In
theseperiods importantsculpturalmotifswereinvented:the columnarmale figure,
for example, the sun menhir,or the crouchingEgyptianfigurewhose head is a
sphere restingon the cube of the body. Parallelismand the repetitionof forms
are used in relief.It is alwaysthe archaic epochs in whichwe see thispractice.The
paintingsof the Paleolithicera, for example, displaya richerrepertoryof forms
than those of the Neolithic period. Yet we are struckby a powerfuldictatorship
over objects; the architecturalsense is dominant, as if one wanted to defend
oneselfagainstirrationalforcesand avoid the cruel hold of objects.
We do not wish to conceal that there is a negativeside to the taste for the
primitives.Sometimes,out of fatigue,one looks forquick and easy solutionsand
wants to simplifythe historicalheritage. One produces generalized formsinto
which the spectatorautomaticallyprojectsthe details.We are familiarwiththese
so-called visual revolts that operate with second-rate means and we are not
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Noteson Cubism
163
Is thereanyignoringthe misunderstandings
provokedbyfalsecontemporaneity.
one who does not claim to be an heir of Paul Cezanne or Georges Seurat? But
often one emphasizes only the technical nuances, instead of recognizing that
these paintersmarkthe adventof grand decorativecomposition.Too frequentlya
new synthesishas been proclaimed when it was solely a matter of decorative
arrangement.
visionand deformation.
It is necessaryto distinguishclearlybetweenautonomous
As an example of deformationwe cite the metaphoricalvariationsin which two
different
representationsbecome conflated.When a naturalisticrepresentationis
schematizedto the point thatthe model assumes the role of commentaryon the
stylization,it is rathera matterof an abbreviationwiththe goal of idealizingthe
model by means of a facileschema.In caricature and the grotesque, stylization
operates in a fashion hostile to the object; two differentmodes of being are
conjoined here. In caricature,it is judgment that is predominant. In any case,
deformationpresupposes a naturalisticorientationand is generallya compensation fora pedantic puritanismthatadores wax figures.
Here we have reproduced some examples of Cubism fromits firstperiod,
which is called AnalyticalCubism.Instead of presentingthe resultof an observation, the painterpresentsthe resultof a visual process thatis not interruptedby
objects. He is not contentwithan abbreviatedrenderingthatwould eliminatethe
refractedparts.
The motifis a functionofhumanvision;itis subordinatedto the conditionsof
the painting.The decisivefactoris volume,whichis not identicalto mass,because
volumeis a totalizationof discontinuousopticalmovements.Thus the conventional
continuumof the bodyis ruptured.... For fartoo long volume has been confused
in painting.An antipictorial
withmass,and thishas led to tactileinterpretations
was
a
was suggestedbythe
onto
and
surface,
experience
tactility
transposed
planar
of
manner
of representing
and
shadow.
There
another
is,
however,
light
modeling
volume:the planarand simultaneousfigurationofopticalmovements.
It is characteristicof Cubism that it should have passed throughdifferent
stagesofformation:firstthe simpledeformation,then the analysisand destruction
of the motif,and finallythe realization of diverse syntheses.This indicates the
depth of the problemthatit posed, one of such magnitudethatfora givenpainter
any one of these moments could seem to constitutethe whole of the problem.
Here we are dealing withonlya part of the road traveled,AnalyticalCubism,the
period in whichwe see less the analysisof the exteriormotifthan the dissociation
of pictorial ideas. The principal challenge was to representvolume as a planar
phenomenon even as one showedthe plasticmovementsin all theirrichness.
From a biologicalstandpointvolume and depth constitutethe strongest,the
mostelementalsensation.It is in space thatwe projectour action and our energy;
withoutit, the existenceof objects seems impossible.The task lies in condensing
thesespatialexperiencesin such a waythattheyare repeatableand are concentrated
in a planar unityless complex than thatof our body.
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Noteson Cubism
165
Around 1908 paintersbegan to be dissatisfied
withpurelypictorialsolutions.
A crisis of color erupted. This is, as in the time of Giotto, the dawn of a new
attemptat the conquest of space and the expansionofvisualconsciousness.
The artistsof the Renaissance had discoveredwhat theycalled nature,and
individualizationof the motifwas the essence of theirart. That is why,in the late
baroque, one moved toward ever greater tactile illusion until a purist like
Domenichino separatedpaintingfromthismisalliancewithsculpture.
The Cubistsfirsteliminatedthe conventionalmotif,whichis situatedat the
peripheryofvisualprocesses.Now the motifis no longeran objectivethingseparate
fromthe spectator;rather,the thingseen participatesin his activity
as he configures
it accordingto the sequence of his subjectiveoptical perceptions.
As stable signsof our actions,objects are precious.We treasureresemblance
as a guarantee of life. The world as tautology.One duplicates creation,which is
regardedas perfect.The astonishmentwroughtbymiracles,the sensationof gaps,
the multisensoryexperience of objects-all this disappears for the sake of a
reassuringrepetition.A bit of positive theologyis eternalizedby reproduction,
and the need for identityis satisfiedbecause everywhereone findsthe identity
thatone soughtwithinoneself.Yet we pay forthistendencytowardreproduction
bydiminishingcreation.
It was the Cubistswho underminedthe object foreveridenticalwithitself;in
other words theyundermined memory,in which ideas are reconciled with one
another. Their greatestachievementis their destructionof mnemonic images.
of things,and it is by means of
Tautologyconveysthe illusionof the immortality
descriptiveimages that one has sought to avoid the annihilation of the world
throughforgetting.
The Cubistpaintersseparatedthe imagefromthe object,eliminatedmemory
and turnedthe motifinto a simultaneousand planar figurationof representations
ofvolume.
The sensations of a table as such cannot be rendered, but only our own
sensations,and a table representedin a picturemakes sense onlyif the sum of a
complex of tangled sensations called table is subordinated to the technical
demands of the picture. The mnemonic legacy of objects had to be destroyed,
forgotten;thus the image became not the fictionof another realitybut a reality
withits own conditions.
Here we do not wishto interpretthe workof the greatImpressionists,
whose
effortsare assessed by criticsin excessivelynaturalisticterms,while in truthit was
the Impressionistswho revealed the primacyof the planar surfaceand rendered
objects as symptomsof a subordinatephenomenon: light.At anothertimewe will
showthatit is importantto separatethesemastersfromthe literatureof naturalism
withitslimitedcontemporaryrelevance.
In thissketchwe can give onlyan outline of the situationin 1908. At some
other time we will describe the agony of space and the differentphases of its
renewal.Sufficeit to mentionthatCezanne was the firstto showthe predominance
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166
OCTOBER
of volume over color, he who told Joachim Gasquet: "Only the volumes are
important!"
A greatvisual discontentbecame apparent around 1908. Fixed objects had
Now one
alreadybeen fragmentedbythe chromaticanalysisof the Impressionists.
wentfurther,
and realized thatthe definedobject is the resultof a complex tangle
of experiences and is, ultimately,a myth;in other words, one could open up
objectsas one opens a box, and breakthemdown in orderto selectthoseelements
thatare importantforthe painting.Similarly,
in a novel or a play,time is cut up
and
this
of
has
time
nothingto do withactual time;
arbitrarily,
category literary
take, for example, the dramatic catastropheswhere qualitativeand contrasting
temporalitiescrosslike the contrastingformsof a painting.One could almostcall
the drama the annihilationof real time.
The firstcondition of Cubist paintingis the surface.One no longer works
between two imaginarylayers that traversethe canvas. Now the totalizationof
the picture is achieved by its unverifiability,
by the fact that the beholder does
not leave the realityof the paintingand that the artist'svision is not interrupted
by comparative observation. The viewer isolates himselfand forgets.This is a
fatalprocess,and it is the observerwho is in charge,not the motif.This process
could be called ascetic. The painter selects the decisive moments of an experience that occurs in two dimensions-he eliminates the tactile elements and
createsan independentformthatis separatefromotherphenomena. He renders
a pictorialconstructionwhose parts balance each other out withoutrecourse to
object associations.
in
into a staticsimultaneity
Temporalnotions of movementare transformed
which the primordialelements of contrastingmovementsare condensed. These
movementsare dividedinto different
formal
fieldsin whichthe figureis dissociated
and broken up. Instead of presenting,as one did previously,
a group of different
objectivemovements,one createsa group of subjectiveoptical movements.Light
and color are employedin a tectonicsense,to supportthe construction.
Volume is expressed by the simultaneous contrast of differently
situated
parts,or ratherby renderingcertain parts as situatedon severalaxes simultaneously.The painterdeploysplanes thatintersect,whatwe call transparency
ofplanes.
The figureis broken up. Partial motifsare shatteredor repeated, depending on
theirimportanceforthe composition.It was not the cube thatwas important;one
chose simple constructiveelements that made possible a unitarysequence of
formsand contained the principaldirections.
The method we are describinghere is that of AnalyticalCubism ca. 1911.
While the Impressionistdissociatedformsby means of color, the Cubist does so
The notion of space was enriched,even as one used simple elements
tectonically.
that allowed forvariationsand clear contrasts.We see here on the one hand a
of means. The mnemonic
complicationof space and on the othera simplification
dimension (i.e., thatwhichis conceived onlyover time) is integratedbymeans of
dynamicpresentations,thanks to the planar dissociation, and by showing the
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Braque. Man with a Guitar. 1911-12.
? 2004 ArtistsRightsSociety(ARS),
Paris.
New York/ADAGP,
Digital image ? The Museum ofModern
Art/LicensedbyScala/ArtResource,NY
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168
OCTOBER
multiplicityof the axes of the figures.The Cubist does not imitatevolume, but
instead renders its autonomous equivalent; and the totalityseems to us still
stronger,due to whathas been said of the separated parts.This simultaneityhas
allowed the incorporation of optical acts into the work that had remained
unconscious until now. One chooses viewsalong several axes, and it is thus that
the tension between movementsand formalfieldsis reinforced.The condition
of such simultaneityis a quickness immeasurable in time that resembles the
rapid, syntheticforce of dreams. Such quickness is possible only because one is
not distractedby the motif,and because the objective tendencydwells at the
periphery,yet does remain present,for the pictorial formsare directed toward
the subjugationof nature.
One final,importantpoint: these imaginativepaintingspresenta completely
invented structure.Because of a certain geometric quality of the figurative
elements,thispaintinghas been consideredrationalistic,but thisreproachcan be
easilyrepudiated,forit is preciselyin mythicperiods thatwe almostalwaysfinda
tectonicart,and the tectonichas neverbeen a means of mimeticrepresentation.
It would be more accurate to saythatsince 1908 the figurehas become functional
and has been humanized.We observea sortof animismof form,except thatnow
the vitalizingforcesno longer come fromspiritsbut fromhuman beings themselves. Artistsno longer work from an image of the gods but from their own
conceptions. Consequentlywe regard tectonicforms,preciselybecause theyare
not measurable,to be the mosthuman,fortheyare the distinguishing
sign of the
visuallyactivehuman being, constructinghis own universeand refusingto be the
slaveof givenforms.
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