Understanding Dimensional Aspects in Cubism and Futurism

Imaging things in another dimension outside of our own can be a difficult, some say even imposable idea to grasp.  The problem is not within the idea in and of itself, instead the problem presents itself in the mental hurtles encountered in attempts to visually interpret how another dimension might look. This problem arises because we live in a three dimensional world, in which we observe objects in a such a way that we can only view them in the present perspective we have, from the position we currently stand, at a single moment in time.  Viewing a fourth dimension would imply that we are viewing an object inhibiting characteristics that render it as if it were viewed from  multiple vantage points at a single moment in time, suggesting what is physically impossible, being in more than one place at the same time.   While mathematicians seem to have no problem interpreting such possibilities using corresponding coordinate systems, the vast majority of individuals can’t even begin to fathom the idea of a fourth dimension or what it might look like.  It is so hard to interpret an object in such a dimension because doing so would entail trying to view a three dimensional surface that inhibits fourth dimensional characteristics. The conception of such a task can be considered paradoxical even when considering three dimensional objects, because drawling’s can only be expressed on a two dimensional surface.   To create an object that inhibits three dimensional characteristics one must illustrate such an object as an illusion to what it actually is in the two dimensional sense.  This illusion portrays the object being three dimensional while in reality what has been drawn is nothing more than a two dimensional geometric shape.  Unbelievably Picasso showed that it was possible to depict a fourth dimension in a painting when he and his collaborators discovered cubism.  The amazing part about the development of cubism  is that Picasso was such an unbelievable artist that he was able to depict objects inhibiting fourth dimensional characteristics, on objects inhibiting third dimensional characteristics, both of which being painted on a flat two dimensional plain.  Picasso's multi-dimensional way of thinking regarding art lead to further works of art following his cubist framework and would even inspire futurism in which, time is depicted as an additional fourth dimension represented in time-laps sequences or visualizations.  

What cubism and futurism have tried to do is to convey an image that obscures our traditional two dimensional way of viewing paintings and images, in a way that accounts for a third and fourth dimension in order to provide us with, more or less, an inter-dimensional perception of the image being portrayed.  I believe The Peacock’s Tails summed up what cubism tries to accomplish best when he says, “Such unusual images, typical in cubist paintings, may be interpreted as attempts to catch views of the subjects by hovering into an unimaginable 4D space and then projecting this new perception back onto the 2D canvas”.  This sentence, in essence describes perfectly what Cubism is trying to project with its strange and sometimes scary depictions of a different reality viewed through a fourth dimension.  Until reading these articles I was unaware that cubism and futurism can both be regarded as interpretations of how one might perceive a fourth dimension and I found it very interesting to see how such complicated ideas were articulated through their discovery by some of the world’s greatest artiest of all time.  The image I have a link to is called Dora Maar with Cat by Pablo Picasso.  This image is a great example of Picasso’s style in a cubist depiction of objects in a fourth dimension.