立体画派理论基础
The theoretical foundation of the Cubist movement.

立体派创行于一九〇七年至一九一四年之间，迄第一次世界大战，画家星散，因此这刚萌芽的立体画又告敛迹了。直到战后，才恢复活动，在这一群充满信心的同志努力开拓之下，一个崭新的立体画派又风靡全球了。

一九〇八年，实在是值得纪念的一年，在立体画史上也是值得歌颂的一页。因为不但可以看到毕加索（Picasso）和布拉圭（Braque）的开诚合作，引为立体派画家的佳话，而且马蒂斯（Matisse）的一帧划时代的杰作《La Desserte》（这是野兽派的代表作）。也在同年完成了。他是野兽派的领导者，也在这时期与毕加索等相见了。这两派伟大的领导者彼此交换意见，研究彼此间的异同点。在一九〇八年，野兽派自吹自擂的自我宣传，甚至离开了原旨，只有瑪蒂斯还保持着他是一贯作风，保守着他参加一九〇四年独立沙龙画展的风味，勇敢地抛弃了纯美化的配景，运用强度的色彩变化来代替透视。他这样的手法，引起了立体画家的注意，他加强布拉圭和特朗（Derain）诸家的立体画理论基础，巩固立体派的思想体系，因为立体派画家已经晓得瑪蒂斯在处理色彩的美感是有逻辑的。诚然瑪蒂斯正沿着缜密的逻辑方向前进，他再也不去留意物体的形态和光线对于物体所产生的反应了。虽然光的本质是可以直接的达到这些目的，可是他却认为这是间接的，他运用色彩，代替了光，于是野兽派又进一步地扬弃了长、高、阔的组成，而产生了另一种学说，这种学说正是瑪蒂斯所主张的。瑪蒂斯说：“假如我要画一个女人的身，我把她的重要部分，集中在几个主要的线条上，把重要部分刻划出来。”这种方法也占着立体派重要的地位。当立体派画家处理面部或身体的时候，就照这种理论，着重于主要部分，而加上瑪蒂斯思想中的创造智巧，作为绘画的蓝本。现在把这两派的不同点用最简单的话来解释。瑪蒂斯说：“我要画的是女人身体。”毕加索说：“我画的是图画的画。”

当立体派画家踏上这冒险性的创造前，他们早已孕育着这世界上现实的新意识。他们小心翼翼地进行着，注重几何学上的精确论据，他们是以“正确的”，和“真实的”字眼作为他们的座右铭。至于毕加索所追求的到底是什么呢？这根本就没有一个人能够充分解释。布拉圭曾有这样的说法：“看来好像在要我吃无用的棉絮，或且要我吃煤油似地！”事实上毕加索所用的方法实在太奇怪了！太惊人了！大有曲高和寡之慨！

立体派的先进，曾尝试创造一种新的透视，去 代替早期所注重的数学上所组成的空间，和四周环境的气氛。这种新的方法是符合逻辑的，因为画家的责任是去“作图”，不过千万不要漫不经意地草率从事。布拉圭说：“到头来就要约束自己，别太疯狂了……”他们鉴于后期印象派的作风已濒于边沿绝境（按：印象派太注重色彩。其实色彩有如破坏者，现在要宣布牠的死刑），他们正设法挽救它，于是他们纠集同志，开始用单纯的颜色来作画了。这种勇敢的革新有赖于坚强的信念，他们觉得这种方法非常适宜，而且已经有了很好的前例，像渥西罗（Uccello）他认为颜色蒙蔽了形体，他自己采用赭色来作画。还有赖飞尔（Raphael）也这么说：“一帧画，画完了的时候，就已经是完整了。”就是柯罗（Corat）也承认这个理论，他说：“颜色对于我，往往是事后才去斟酌的。”

在不久的将来，我们可以看到这些过于简单的概念，会有怎样的后果。当一九一〇年，这种作画上的结构似乎是很重要的，其实这个问题并不简单。塞尚（Cezanne）对于画面的结构曾谈到“圆柱体”、“圆锥体”、“圆球体”，这不但是未来的指针，同时在十五、十六世纪的 意大利画家就已经注意到了（这些画家同时也是几何学家）。但立体派画家，初时还不大了解塞尚的论据。

这个画派之所以被称为立体派，是由批评家路易士 . 窩斯些利斯（Louis Vauxcelles）所假定的。他原想冷酷的讽刺，不意竟成为公平的定名了。事实上他们是根据几何学上缜密多面体而组成的。他们尽情地把形象立体化，就是塞尚的论据，也曾被固执地运用过，结果形成了整体的纯粹规律的概念。由这个规律创造出富于花毯色调的画面，分析起来，只有运用淳朴的赭色调子来表现的。他们用经济的颜色使画面显得极端调和，收到极好的效果，那热心于色彩派的画家狄拉奈（Delaunay）形容这些组织如“蛛网”，狄氏好像佛莱斯纳（Fresnaye）、路德（Lhote），威朗（Villon）一样，他企图把自己的立体派转变成有印象派情调的新立体派。他们运用先分散，然后重新组织的方法，不管形式上、色彩上、结构上都经过严密的分析（分析的立体画）；另一种新透视法的组织方法也采用。一种物体实际是从不同的角度把它的每一方面在同一时间内完整的表现出来。就是说我们根据这种概念而采取的方法。因此，我们开始有一种新配景法的想象，这种方法可能得力于小孩子所画的画，小孩子所画的人像，往往从侧面的角度，却画出并排的两个眼睛来。还有也可能得力于埃及人画的肖像，他往往把全面的面型与半面的面型配在一起的。此外还得力于教堂型的突出画面，这种方法就是立体派所说的：“摺叠的半面”。根据这方法，同时应用到色彩上，这的确是一种奇异的形式，这种形式可以使我们看到它比原来更有吸引力，也可以证明形象与颜色只是并列，并非集合体。另外一种革新，也引起了显著的影响，就是应用X光原理，使一种新的成分，通过那种局部不透明的物体，使它呈现出来；平面的摺叠法是为着要唤起深度的感觉，而且也替画家们多年来所寻求的，嵌入深度的难题得到解决了。事实上，一个完整的造型的创作，有着某种和文学专家的词藻、隐喻、省略、对偶、强喻（使用一个字作为牵强附会的字），换喻（使用一个字作为他字的呈示），和其他的方法相似；此外，当时还流行着一种新的观念，那就是“变换价值的价值”、“对于恒久变态的意向”，这些多少直接影响到青年画家。立体派画家的革新是这样勇敢，但他们仍旧有着逻辑的根据，这可以表现出他们对于确实性的企求，一种不断的对技术上的手段加以控制。他们除了组织上的规则外，他们也使用几何学。显然的，几何学更加可以直接地使用到造图上的设计，此外还有些奥妙的语句如：“和谐之门”、“至善的比例”、“优美的断面”，这，曾经激起了当时画家的创造力，尤其后者是修拉（Seurat）、塞路萨（Serusier），所特别珍爱的。他们使用优美的断面，是依照维多路维雅斯（Vitruvius，即最容易理会）的原理，这种立论是要得到完美的、合乎比例的布置，要使全体间比较小的部分，和较大的部分的关系，与整体的及较重要的部分的关系相同。毕加索是本能地发现这个公式，格力斯（Gris）就要经过熟虑后才能得到这公式，不过关于美学概念，只有格氏给我们最清楚的解释，他很清楚、很恰当地综合起来说：“塞尚是倾向结构的方面，我却从那方面离开。”

希望这篇简略的立体画派理论，能充分地使研究绘画的人们，明白新美学所主张的新方法，是和纯美观的艺术家所强调的外表特征是相对的，因为新美学只保留着外表特征的精神而亡。

The Cubist movement emerged between 1907 and 1914, until the outbreak of the First World War dispersed the artists, causing the nascent Cubist art to fade away. It wasn't until after the war that the movement resumed its activities, and under the efforts of this confident group of comrades, a new Cubist movement swept the globe once again.

The year 1908 is particularly noteworthy and commendable in the history of Cubist art. Not only do we witness the remarkable collaboration between Picasso and Braque, leading to the tales of the Cubist painters, but also the completion of Matisse's epoch-making masterpiece "La Desserte" (which is representative of the Fauvist movement). He was the leader of the Fauvist movement and also met Picasso during this period. The leaders of these two movements exchanged ideas and studied each other's similarities and differences. In 1908, the Fauvist movement, in its self-aggrandizement, even deviated from its original purpose, but Matisse remained true to his consistent style, preserving the flavor he exhibited at the 1904 Salon d'Automne, bravely abandoning the pure beautification of backgrounds and instead using intense color variations to replace perspective. His approach attracted the attention of Cubist painters, strengthening the theoretical foundation of Cubism laid by Braque and Derain, consolidating the ideological system of Cubism, because Cubist painters already knew that Matisse's handling of color aesthetics was logical. Indeed, Matisse was advancing along a rigorous logical path, no longer paying attention to the form of objects and the reactions of objects to light. Although the essence of light could directly achieve these goals, he considered it indirect. He used color to replace light, so the Fauvist movement further abandoned the composition of length, height, and width and produced another doctrine, which is advocated by Matisse. Matisse said, "If I want to paint a woman's body, I focus on a few main lines to depict the important parts." This method also occupies an important position in Cubism. When Cubist painters deal with faces or bodies, they focus on the main parts according to this theory, and add Matisse's creative ingenuity as a blueprint for painting.

Now, let's explain the differences between these two movements in the simplest terms. Matisse said, "I want to paint the female body." Picasso said, "I paint the painting itself."

When Cubist painters embarked on this adventurous creation, they had long been nurturing a new consciousness of reality in the world. They proceeded cautiously, emphasizing geometric precision as their guiding principle, with the words "correct" and "real" as their mottoes. As for what Picasso was pursuing, no one could fully explain it. Braque once said, "It seems like they want me to eat useless cotton, or want me to eat kerosene!" In fact, Picasso's methods are too strange! Too amazing! There's an air of arrogance and elitism!

The Cubist avant-garde once attempted to create a new perspective to replace the early emphasis on mathematical spatial composition and the surrounding atmosphere. This new method was logical because the painter's responsibility was to "draw," but it should not be done carelessly. Braque said, "In the end, you have to restrain yourself, don't get too crazy..." They saw that the later Impressionist style was on the verge of extinction (note: Impressionism focuses too much on color. In fact, color is like a destroyer, and now it is time to announce its death sentence), so they were trying to save it. They gathered comrades and began to paint with pure colors. This brave innovation relied on strong beliefs. They felt that this method was very suitable and there were already good precedents, like Uccello, who believed that color obscured form and painted with ochre. Even Raphael said, "When a painting is finished, it is already complete." Even Corot admitted this theory, saying, "Color is often considered afterwards."

In the near future, we can see what consequences these overly simple concepts will have. When in 1910, the structural aspect of painting seemed to be very important, in fact, this issue is not simple. Cezanne once talked about the structure of the picture, mentioning "cylinder," "cone," and "sphere," which not only pointed to the future but was also noted by Italian painters in the 15th and 16th centuries (these painters were also geometers). However, Cubist painters initially did not fully understand Cezanne's arguments.

The Cubist movement was named by the critic Louis Vauxcelles, who intended to make a cold satire but unexpectedly ended up with a fair name. In fact, they were based on the meticulous polyhedra of geometry. They fully rendered the images in three dimensions, in line with Cezanne's argument, which had been stubbornly applied and resulted in the formation of a concept of pure overall regularity. By creating richly toned images based on this principle, they analyzed that only simple ochre tones were used. They used economical colors to make the images extremely harmonious, achieving excellent results. The enthusiastic colorist painter Delaunay described these organizations as "spider webs." Delaunay, like Fresnaye, Lhote, and Villon, attempted to transform his Cubism into a new Cubism with an Impressionist flavor. They used methods of dispersion followed by reorganization, which underwent rigorous analysis in terms of form, color, and structure (analytical Cubism); another new organizational method was also adopted, using a new perspective that allowed the complete representation of an object's every aspect from different angles at the same time. This approach may be inspired by the way children draw, often depicting two eyes side by side from a side angle. It may also be inspired by Egyptian portrait painting, which often combines full-face and profile views. In addition, it may be inspired by church-style prominent images, which is what the Cubists call "folded half-face." According to this method, color is also applied, creating a strange form that is more attractive than the original and proves that form and color are merely parallel, not a collective entity. Another innovation that had a significant impact was the application of X-ray principles, which revealed a new element through partial opaque objects; the folding method of the plane was used to evoke a sense of depth and solved the problem of embedding depth that painters had been seeking for years. In fact, the creation of a complete model has some similarities to the vocabulary, metaphors, omissions, antitheses, and hyperbole used by literary experts; furthermore, there was a new concept at the time, that of the "value of changing values" and the "intention of permanent transformation," which directly influenced young artists. The innovation of Cubist painters was so brave, but they still had logical reasons, which demonstrated their pursuit of truth and constant control over technical means. Besides organizational rules, they also used geometry. Obviously, geometry can be more directly applied to graphic design, and there are some mysterious phrases like "door of harmony," "perfect proportion," and "beautiful section," which once aroused the creativity of painters at the time, especially the latter was particularly cherished by Seurat and Serusier. They used beautiful sections according to the principles of Vitruvius, aiming to achieve perfect and proportional arrangements, ensuring that the relationships between smaller and larger parts and between the whole and the more important parts were the same. Picasso instinctively discovered this formula, while Gris had to deliberate to obtain it. However, in terms of aesthetic concepts, only Gris gives us the clearest explanation, succinctly summarizing: "Cezanne tends toward the structural aspect, but I depart from that aspect."

Hopefully, this brief theory of Cubism can fully help researchers of painting understand the new methods advocated by the new aesthetics, which are relative to the external features emphasized by proponents of pure aesthetics, as the new aesthetics only retain the spirit of external features and perish.