1. Cubism scientifique is the tendency toward pure cubism; it is the painting with elements borrowed not from the realities of vision, but the realities of knowledge. The geometrical lines, which so impressed all who first saw their scientific works, resulted from the attempt to paint the essential—rather than the visual—realities of things which were rendered on canvas with an abstract purity, and in which objective realities and story-telling qualities were eliminated.
Most of Picasso’s geometrical representations and Duchamp’s “King and Queen” are good illustrations of scientific or pure Cubism.
2. Cubism physique is painting compositions the elements of which are borrowed for the most part from realities of vision. Inasmuch as objective realities are more or less in evidence in these works, they are not pure Cubism.
Picasso’s “Woman and the Pot of Mustard” is a very striking—and indifferent—example of Cubism physique, which simply means cubist paintings in which figures and objects are more or less apparent to the casual observer. In Marcel Duchamp’s “Chess Players” the figures are quite plain; in Picabia’s “Dance at the Spring” one figure is distinguishable at first glance, the second is not so easily discerned, while the spring is more obscure, though plain enough after a little study.
It is under this head that some of the most interesting
PICABIA
Dance at the Spring
and also some of the most exasperating cubist pictures will be found. To the extent that figures and objects are blocked in in planes and masses in a big, elemental way, the result may be both impressive and beautiful—Derain’s “Forest at Martigues” is an example in point; but in so far as the picture is a puzzle, clear only in part, the result is exasperating; the observer, however sympathetic his attitude, is diverted from enjoying the art of the painter to the attempt to discover the hidden objects.