Cubism

Cubism, movement in 20th-century art, especially in painting, that was primarily concerned not with lifelike representation but with the depiction of subject-matter by breaking its form down into basic geometric shapes; by overlapping or interlocking these shapes, Cubist painters also attempted to depict objects from many angles not simultaneously visible in reality but arranged so as to form a unified composition.

Because it fundamentally overturned the way in which subject-matter had been depicted since the Renaissance, Cubism had profound and far-reaching effects on the development of art in the 20th century. Indeed, it stands as the precursor to abstract and non-objective art. It was a revolt both against the sentimentality and realism of traditional painting of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and against the emphasis on the effects of light and colour and the lack of form characteristic of Impressionism.

Cubism was developed largely by Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, who worked closely together from 1907 up to the outbreak of World War I. They drew their inspiration partly from tribal art—particularly that of Africa and Oceania, with its vigour and lack of concern with realistic depiction. Another catalyst in the development of Cubism was the dictum of the Post-Impressionist painter Paul Cézanne that: “Everything in nature takes its form from the sphere, the cone, and the cylinder. “ The name “Cubism” originated in a derogatory remark by the critic Louis Vauxcelles, who, reviewing an exhibition of work by Braque that was exhibited in 1908, remarked that the paintings were made up of cubes.

There are two types of Cubism: Analytical Cubism (which dates from about 1910) and Synthetic Cubism (which developed in about 1912). In Analytical Cubism, the artist took an analytical approach to subject-matter, determining and painting the basic geometric shapes of which an object is composed, in particular the cube or cone, or the basic planes that overlie the object's geometric forms. In Synthetic Cubism, the artist created abstract compositions by juxtaposition (producing a synthesis) of geometric shapes. To avoid simple, naturalistic, and emotional effects, the early, or Analytical, Cubists used mainly restrained greys, browns, greens, and yellows and often executed their works in monochrome. After 1914 in the Synthetic Cubist period many Cubists introduced brighter colours into their painting.

Besides Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, other notable Cubist painters were Albert Gleizes, Robert Delaunay, Fernand Léger, Francis Picabia, Marcel Duchamp, Roger de La Fresnaye, and Juan Gris. Notable Cubist sculptors, who followed the same approach to art as Cubist painters, include Picasso, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Jacques Lipchitz, and Aleksandr Archipenko. Among the many artists who were influenced by Cubist ideas and techniques were Maurice de Vlaminck, Stuart Davis, and Lyonel Feininger. Two books, Cubisme (1912) by Albert Gliezes and Jean Metzinger, and Les Peintres Cubistes (1913) by Guillaume Apollinaire, were important in establishing Cubism as a movement.