Personal audio description of “Mechanical Paradise”;
George Braque: Le Chateau de la Roche Guyon
My defined starting point is episode one of the acclaimed art docuseries “Shock of the New” called “Mechanical Paradise”. It tracks the mechanical revolution throughout Europe, beginning in the late 1800s and ending in the ‘50s, comparing it with the art movements that were linked to new innovations. The first being that of the cubist movement.
As referenced to in my statement of intention, I’m interested in the concept of a movement/philosophy. The essential concept of cubism is that of trying to depict all angles or views of an object/scene, but on a two dimensional canvas. This is evidently shown here in Braque’s painting. He deconstructed a technically challenging French cliff face town scene, into a series of prisms and planes. These basic shapes are shaded in such a way that the viewer cannot be certain as to whether the edged of the buildings are pointing in or out. There are strong motifs throughout; the ascending prims, leading to the solitary cylinders of the castle at the top. The painting beneath is of the same subject but painted from higher up, gaining a new perspective of the castle perched on the hill.
Etienne-Jules Marey
The successor movement to cubism was futurism. Its philosophy was that of reflecting the speed and power of modern machinery, that unshackled industry from slower, less efficient, laborious past.
The question was how to capture movement. Marey, as seen in the pieces to the right, used photography. He took sequential photos of movement, bringing time into a piece. Similar to how the cubists brought every perspective of a subject onto canvas, the futurists brought in time. I really like the concept behind these photographs as it is in the forefront of the pieces.