Section d'Or
The Section d'Or ("Golden Section" in French), also known as Groupe de Puteaux or Puteaux Group, was a collective of painters and critics associated with an offshoot of Cubism known as Orphism (a term coined by the French poet Guillaume Apollinaire). Based in the Paris suburb of Puteaux, they were active from 1912 to around 1914, coming to prominence in the wake of their controversial showing at the Salon des Indépendants in the spring of 1911.
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[edit] History
The movement began with an exhibition at the Galerie La Boetie in Paris in 1912, which was also accompanied by publication of the treatise Du Cubisme by Metzinger and Gleizes.[1] In addition to featuring works by the Duchamp brothers, Raymond Duchamp-Villon,[2]Jacques Villon and Marcel Duchamp, other exhibitors included artists such as Archipenko, Roger de La Fresnaye, Albert Gleizes, Juan Gris, Fernand Léger, André Lhote, Jean Metzinger, Jean Marchand and Francis Picabia, among others. The opening address was given by Guillaume Apollinaire.
The group's title was suggested by Jacques Villon, after reading a 1910 translation of Leonardo da Vinci's Trattato della Pittura by Joséphin Péladan. Peladan attached great mystical significance to the golden section (French: Section d'Or), and other similar geometric configurations. For Villon, this symbolised his belief in order and the significance of mathematical proportions, because it reflected patterns and relationships occurring in nature.
The group adopted its name to distinguish itself from the narrower definition of Cubism developed earlier by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in the Montmartre quarter of Paris.
The onset of World War I in 1914 largely ended the group's activities, which had never been much more than a loose association.
[edit] Notable members
- Guillaume Apollinaire - (1880–1918), Italian
- Robert Delaunay - (1885–1941), French
- Marcel Duchamp - (1887–1968), French
- Raymond Duchamp-Villon - (1876–1918), French
- Henri le Fauconnier - (1881–1946), French
- Roger de la Fresnaye - (1885–1925), French
- Albert Gleizes - (1881–1953), French
- Frantisek Kupka - (1871–1957), Czech
- Fernand Léger - (1881–1955), French
- André Lhote - (1885–1962), French
- Louis Marcoussis - (1878–1941), Polish
- Jean Metzinger - (1883–1956), French
- Francis Picabia - (1879–1953), French/Spanish
- Maurice Princet - (1875–1973), French
- Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes - (1884–1974), French
- Jeanne Rij-Rousseau - (1870–1956), French
- Henry Valensi - (1883–1960), French
- Jacques Villon - (1875–1963), French
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ [1] Metzinger and Gleizes excerpt from Cubism 1912, retrieved April 6, 2009
- ^ Tate, Raymond Duchamp-Villon retrieved February 12, 2010
[edit] Further reading
- Alfred H. Barr, Jr., Cubism and Abstract Art, New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1936.
- John Cauman (2001). Inheriting Cubism: The Impact of Cubism on American Art, 1909-1936. New York: Hollis Taggart Galleries. ISBN 0-9705723-4-4.
- Cooper, Douglas (1970). The Cubist Epoch. London: Phaidon in association with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art & the Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 0875870414.
- John Golding, Cubism: A History and an Analysis, 1907-1914, New York: Wittenborn, 1959.
- Richardson, John. A Life Of Picasso, The Cubist Rebel 1907-1916. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1991. ISBN 978-0-307-26665-1
