Cubism
ART WOULD NEVER BE THE SAME
Who has two eyes on the side of his mask-like face and flat, basic shapes for a body? A figure in a Cubist painting, that’s who! Though it may seem crude to some, Cubism revolutionized the art world like no movement before by questioning the very nature of reality, space and time, the physical world, and the relativity of human perceptions.
WHEN & WHERE
c. 1907–1920s
France
Cubism was pioneered by the joint efforts of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The two painters developed an innovative pictorial language that took an unprecedented look at the arrangement of space. Before Cubism, Western art depicted specific subjects in a specific time or place. Picasso and Braque eliminated specifics; their art was a philosophy. The subject of the painting was no longer the focus—now the focus was the painting itself.
Cubism developed in two phases: Analytical and Synthetic. Analytical Cubism involved the deconstruction and analysis of forms, exploring simultaneous, multiple perspectives and confusing the relationship between the figure and the ground. This radical fragmentation reduced forms into geometric shapes, like spheres, cones, and, of course, cubes. They painted how we comprehend objects, not how we see them. Synthetic Cubism, the second phase, was characterized by reconstructing what the preceding phase had torn asunder. Collage, which often combined painting with overlapping bits of paper and found objects, emerged as an art medium.
By redefining truth as relative to one’s frame of reference, Cubism’s contributions to art history are immense. Its bold, pluralistic steps forward opened the floodgates for all subsequent movements—after Cubism, anything became possible in art. —ARR
Selected artists: Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Juan Gris