A Delicate Balance

2/18/13:  A Delicate Balance

Harvest Threshing, Albert Gleizes

                The largest pre-war Cubist work, Gleizes paved the way for much of the Cubist movement not only with his writings, but also with the huge paintings he made.  This work, like most of Gleizes works, is characterized by ambitious subjects; namely, the threshers.  Gleize has given most of the workers subtle tones, but implanted them with the colors with such richness that they seem almost romantic in a sense.  Although the work itself does praise the workers here, the real greatness of the work lies in the relationship of the lines and the curves of the painting.  This relationship is analogous to the relationship between the worker and nature, with the painting as a whole suggesting an endless dance of the two in harmony.  The background and much of the area framing the main part of the painting is more abstract than the rest, which pays homage to both Georges Seurat and Cezanne.  Influences from Cezanne especially pervaded much of Cubist art at the time, mainly in how strong, luscious colors contrasted and coexisted with sharp geometric lines.  Paintings like these set the stage for many new artists to come.

Salon Cubists:

http://arthistory.about.com/od/glossary_s/a/s_salon_cubism.htm

Information on Cubism as a whole:

http://arthistory.about.com/od/modernarthistory/a/cubism_10one.htm