First Essay

Javerya Shahid

History of Art, Design and Architecture

05 April, 2022
Au Bon Marche- Pablo Picasso

The Bride stripped Bare by her Bachelors, Even- Marche Duchamp (on the left)

Tatlin’s Tower- Vladimir Tatlin (on the right)

Composition in White and Yellow- Piet Mondrian

In fine art, the term "avant-garde" (from the French for 'vanguard') is traditionally used to describe
any artist, group or style, which is considered to be significantly ahead of the majority in its
technique, subject matter, or application. the term "avant-garde" has been associated with groups of
artists - and sometimes single individuals - who sought to fly in the face of acceptable standards of
artistic taste and to define new paradigms of creativity. The idea of the avant-garde has traditionally
been beholden to two interpretations. On the one hand, it is seen as inextricably linked to a radical
social or political program, so that transgressive art becomes the vehicle for transgressive social and
political activity. On the other hand, avant-garde art has been seen as the domain of pure stylistic
experiment, unfettered by social concerns of any kind. I will elaborate more on the latter
interpretation of avant-garde.

Au Bon Marche, was a paper collage created by Pablo Picasso in Paris, in January 25-26, 1913, Oil
and pasted paper on cardboard. The work is categorized as cubism collage and Picasso had become
increasingly preoccupied with extending the vocabulary of Cubism with the addition of more and

more collaged material from the world of interior design, print and publicity.1 Picasso’s Au Bon
Marché proclaims its cheapness not only in its materials, but by its title as well. Bon marché is a
French term meaning “good deal” or “cheap” as well as being the name of a prominent Paris
department store. This was particularly influencing as it led to challenging the norm of an artist’s skill
work and the quality of the painted surface. It also challenged the distinctions between high and low
class culture attributed to other art movements, like Dada, Surrealism, Pop-art. It is also important to
note that collage widely used disparate found materials, referring to mass consumer culture. For
many people the appeal of early Cubist collage and papier collé is more intellectual than
conventionally aesthetic. These works prompt the viewer to enjoy the multiple references and
significations to be found in the combinations of forms and punning texts. It simply prods that there
is more than what meets the eye. The simplified planar forms employed in this paved the way for
many future art movements, all that led to the core idea of being non-representational. In the 20 th
century in influenced Suprematism, Constructivism, De Stijl, Color Field painting and Minimalism.

The Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even is often called the Large Glass because that is
precisely what it is: two pieces of glass, which are stacked vertically and framed like a double-hung
window to reach over nine feet tall. Though the Large Glass is essentially a flat, two-dimensional
object, it is emphatically not a painting, as it is mostly transparent—you can walk around it and view
it from both sides—and Duchamp avoided using traditional materials like canvas and oil paint.
Instead, he concocted the imagery on the glass surface out of wire, foil, glue, and varnish. Another
thing that makes it interestingly unique is that it looks a bit like a mechanical diagram and was
designed it to function like a metaphorical machine. Duchamp loved science. To create the Large
Glass, he experimented not only with new media but also with recent scientific theories as if he were
in a laboratory.  On top of the tale of amorous attraction and frustration, Duchamp layered ideas
about such scientific phenomena as electromagnetism and telegraphy. 2 Duchamp’s writings reveal
that he imagined the Bride’s realm as the mysterious fourth dimension of space, a higher plane from
the Bachelors who live in our common three-dimensional world. This accounts for their

1
Charles Carmer and Kim Grant, “Synthetic Cubism II,” Khan Academy (Khan Academy, 2017),
https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/cubism-early-abstraction/cubism/a/synthetic-cubism-part-ii.
2
Linda Dalrymple Henderson, Duchamp in Context: Science and Technology in the Large Glass and Related
Works (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998).
miscommunications and failed attempts at finding love. In the Large Glass, Duchamp brought art,
science, sex, and love together in an absurdly humorous way. Watching machines try to fall in love;
imagining the bug-tree-antenna Bride strip for Bachelors who cannot reach her; understanding that
the object was made with dust, shattered glass, and marks made randomly by a toy cannon; and
tying that drama to the complicated workings and invisible forces of science is surprising, playful, and
oddly hilarious. And are what make this piece incredibly unique for the age that it was set in. 3

Tatlin’s Tower or the project for the Monument to the Third International (1919–20), was a design for
a grand monumental building by the Russian artist and architect Vladimir Tatlin, that was never built.
It was planned to be erected in Petrograd (now St. Petersburg) after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917,
as the headquarters and monument of the Comintern (the third international). Tatlin`s Constructivist
tower was to be built from industrial materials: iron, glass and steel. In materials, shape and function,
it was envisaged as a towering symbol of modernity. The reason why the entire idea of one such
design came about was due to what historians now call “Monumental Propaganda”. They wanted a
typical soviet monument that functioned as “a propaganda vehicle in the fight for victory of a new
system, for enlightenment and education of the popular masses.” Tatlin actually started off as a painter,
practicing religious symbolism and then turned to architecture after being disillusioned by it. He wanted
something that would make a direct impact on people’s lives. This design was done at a time when
Communist rule was still budding on the idea of creating a distinct social identity through art. Although
this tower never came to life, it achieved and went on to become the basis of Russian Constructivism.4

Composition in White and Yellow was made in 1933. Mondrian's art was very utopian and was
interested in the quest for universal values and aesthetics. However, his art has always been rooted in
nature, developing a non-representational form that he called Neoplasticism. This was a new "pure
plastic art" that he felt needed to create "universal beauty". Finally, to express this, Mondrian decided
to limit the vocabulary of the form to three primary colors (red, blue, yellow), three primary values
(black, white, gray), and two primary directions (horizontal and vertical). Mondrian's arrival in Paris
from the Netherlands in 1911 marked the beginning of a period of profound change. He
encountered experiments in Cubism and with the intent of integrating himself within the Parisian
avant-garde movement removed an 'a' from the Dutch spelling of his name (Mondrian). 5 It becomes
clear in his paintings that a crucial balance has been ensured between the geometrical precision of
the painting and the clear, direct, manual touch on the other. This technique although works towards
the function of eliminating the picturesque, it does not carry itself so far as to impose a strong and
clear sense of mechanical. We can conclude that they have not been made as a pattern might
suggest automatically but with tentativeness and exploration that is subject to figuration. Mondrian’s
unfinished and preparatory work suggests that his compositions were not so much worked out rather
than being worked towards.6

3
Lara Kuykendall, “Duchamp, the Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even (the Large Glass) (Article),” Khan
Academy (Khan Academy), accessed May 3, 2022, https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/dada-and-
surrealism/dada2/a/duchamp-the-bride-stripped-bare-by-her-bachelors-even#:~:text=Duchamp%20called%20The
%20Bride%20Stripped,art%20world%20of%20his%20generation.
4
Tim Brinkhof, “Tatlin's Tower and the Untapped Potential of Early Soviet Architecture,” Big Think, October 5,
2021, https://bigthink.com/high-culture/tatlins-tower-soviet-architecture/.
5
Piet Mondrain, “Composition in White, Red, and Yellow by Piet Mondrian,” Artvee, November 15, 2021,
https://artvee.com/dl/composition-in-white-red-and-yellow/.
6
Charles Harrison, Abstraction, Figuration and Representation (Alfred Place, London: Yale University Press, 1993), 259.
 Bibliography

Brinkhof, Tim. “Tatlin's Tower and the Untapped Potential of Early Soviet Architecture.” Big Think,
October 5, 2021. https://bigthink.com/high-culture/tatlins-tower-soviet-architecture/.
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synthetic-cubism-part-ii.
Harrison, Charles. Abstraction, Figuration and Representation. Alfred Place, London: Yale University
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Linda Dalrymple Henderson, Duchamp in Context: Science and Technology in the Large Glass and
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Mondrain, Piet. “Composition in White, Red, and Yellow by Piet Mondrian.” Artvee, November 15,
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