Section d'Or

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The Section d'Or ("Golden Section" in French), also known as Groupe de Puteaux or Puteaux Group and based in the Paris suburb of Puteaux, was a collective of painters and critics associated with an offshoot of Cubism known as Orphism. 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.

[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. In addition to featuring works by the Duchamp brothers, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Jacques Villon and Marcel Duchamp, other exhibitors included artists such as Archipenko, de La Fresnaye, Gleizes, Gris, Léger, Metzinger and Picabia amongst 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's name was adopted by them in order to distinguish themselves 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.