April 23- Picasso and Braque, Brothers in Cubism

Though Picasso and Braque were indeed brothers in Cubism, their relationship seems to me to be a very important aspect of their artistic lives and style. Pablo Picasso is no doubt the more famous of the two cubist artists, but when a large exhibit features the work of Braque, a very similar yet less noted artist, with just as much emphasis and care as they do Picasso's it makes you double think the reasoning behind the fame. This article makes you think about when Cubism was being created in their shared studio, and who put more into the process or who created the first truly cubist work. It also makes you wonder how much a name affects the popularity of a work, and whether or not Braque would be more famous if he had been as open as Picasso. Although I did not really connect to the 1989 article, I sought out to find on my own the works of Picasso and Braque and compare the two. I also wanted to explore their relationship on a deeper level than explored in the article. I am no expert but I felt like no one can really know how much one person affects another and vice-versa. While exploring the vast world of the internet in search of comparisons between Braque and Picasso I found a couple of different things.

The first thing I found was this nice little game.

A tic-tac-toe game in which Braque and Picasso compete for the win with their artwork. The creators of this page seem to believe that the relationship between the two artists was more of a competition than a friendship, and mention the fact that both artists signed their work on the back as to compete in a purely artistic level. I thought this was an interesting tool in exploring and after tying 10 games, winning 4 and losing 2 I decided to move on.

The next thing I found was another article in the New York Times. This article, from April 2007, was about the two artist's shared fascination with the movies. I thought this was an interesting idea to explore in both the relationship of the two men, and the affect this fascination had on their work. Within this article I learned about the direct relationship to cinematography and certain visual choices of George Melies in relation to the work of Picasso. Also within the article was another side of cubism and the artists' relationship, a competition to movies. I also found a Charlie Rose episode devoted to the exhibit mentioned within the article, "Picasso Braque and early film in Cubism."

The most helpful source I found in trying to discover more about the friendship between Braque and Picasso was a slideshow on Powershow.com. This slideshow featured many artists in relationship to Picasso, but once you reached the middle you saw the clear relationship of Picasso and Braque. The slideshow is called "Creative Friendship and the Making of Modern Art." The slideshow placed many of the artists' work next to one another and made commentary on the relationship of the men, and the relationship of their artwork.

Though the New York Time's article, "Picasso and Braque, Brothers in Cubism," did not particularly connect to me, it moved me to explore the relationship of the two artists on a level I would not have understood prior to reading the article. Also, it has urged me to take a second look at cubist works in general, which I am not particularly fond of.