Cubist Composition. by Albert Gleizes, 1881-1953

Albert Gleizes, 1881-1953
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Cubist Composition.

Original lithograph in black ink. 1921. Signed with initials in pencil. Also signed in full in the stone. One of 25 first proof impressions on japan paper; before the regular edition of 125 impressions. Issued for the fourth portfolio of the album: Die Schqffenden, by Kiepenhauer Weimar, 1921. With the publisher's blindstamp lower left. Scarce.
Ref: Loyer - Gleizes Les Estampes no 153.

Extremely fine impression on the special japan paper. Excellent condition. Full margins. Sheet: 16 1/8 x 12 l/8ins. Image: 141/8x10 l/2ins (360x266mm).

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One of the most important prints in the style of Analytical Cubism.

This composition is closely linked to studies in painting and drawing made by Gleizes in the period just prior to and just post the First War. However,the finalised lithograph was drawn in 1921 and issued for the seminal German portfolio of prints; Die Schqffenden, published in Weimar, where the Bauhaus had been founded by Gropius two years earlier. Besides the composition by Gleizes, above, the series also included major cubist works by Marcoussis and Archipenko.

In this composition can be seen the ultimate development by Gleizes of the use of abstract surface patterns, within an arrangement of cubist forms, to create an abstract construction of plane, space and volume. In contrast to the way that Picasso and Braque had used multiple angular superimposed forms directly taken from actual objects or figures to suggest movement or space, in the Synthetic Cubist period the forms become arbitrary and totally non-representational, the purpose being to use form pattern and shape to express an abstract idea of movement or space.

Much less prolific than many of the other Cubist painters Gleizes was nonetheless one of the most important and creative artists of the school, as well as being the major intellectual force within the second period of Cubism.