Thursday 19 November 2009

The cubist cycle lane























In cubist artworks, objects are broken up, analyzed, and re-assembled in an abstracted form—instead of depicting objects from one viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater context. Often the surfaces intersect at seemingly random angles, removing a coherent sense of depth. The background and object planes interpenetrate one another to create the shallow ambiguous space, one of cubism's distinct characteristics.

This new cycle lane, aptly sited outside the Town Hall of the London Borough of Waltham Forest, also incorporates a reference to Picasso’s famous ‘blue period’ painting ‘The cyclist abandons his bicycles and runs away screaming’.