The Birth of Tragedy |
"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived … I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms..." (Walden, 1854). |
Analytical cubism.. was able to reduce the representation of objects to their primary qualities, which he defined as an object’s “form and its position in space,” while leaving the viewer to envision such secondary qualities as color and texture. This observation underscores Picasso’s scientific bent and even echoes a turning point in the history of scientific ideas, when Galileo realized that in order to formulate a consistent science of motion he must consider only qualities that are amenable to objective or mathematical representation. In the physical sciences they include velocity, mass and force. An object’s secondary qualities, such as its color, smell and other “essences,” are excluded because they cannot be rendered mathematically.
Have discovered a similar reduction in the Demoiselles, Picasso elaborated it further between 1908 and 1912 with a great deal of help from Braque as well as from developments in mathematics ( the fourth dimension), science (X rays) and technology (cinematography and photography). In the new manner of representation that emerged, forms are reduced to basic geometrical components that are themselves shattered so as to blend into their surrounding space, creating a simultaneous geometrization of space and bodies.
"Einstein, Picasso —Space, Time and the Beauty that Causes Havoc
