Lena Rivera
Cubism, a highly influential 20th-century art movement, was pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in Paris between 1907 and 1914. The term 'Cubism' was coined by art critic Louis Vauxcelles, who described Braque's 1908 work Houses at L'Estaque as being composed of bizarreries cubiques (cubic oddities). While the movement is generally associated with painting, it also had a profound influence on sculpture and architecture. This paragraph will introduce the topic of the first Cubist painting and explore the key artists and ideas that shaped this revolutionary art style.
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Name of the painting | Les Demoiselles d’Avignon |
| Artist | Pablo Picasso |
| Year | 1907 |
| Art movement | Cubism |
| Style | Analytical Cubism |
| Art techniques | Oil on canvas |
| Current location | Museum of Modern Art, New York |
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What You'll Learn
- The first true Cubist painting is thought to be Pablo Picasso's 1907 work, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
- The term 'Cubism' was coined by critic Louis Vauxcelles in 1908, after seeing Georges Braque's paintings
- Cubism was partly influenced by the work of Paul Cézanne
- Cubism's development from 1910 to 1912 is often referred to as Analytical Cubism
- Cubism also influenced sculpture and architecture
The first true Cubist painting is thought to be Pablo Picasso's 1907 work, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
Cubism, a highly influential 20th-century art movement, was pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in Paris between 1907 and 1914. It is generally agreed that the movement began around 1907 with Picasso's painting 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon', which is considered the first true Cubist painting. This work included elements of Cubist style, such as showing objects and people from multiple angles and breaking them down into distinct areas or planes. The forms of the five female nudes in the painting become fractured, angular shapes, with the warm reddish-browns advancing and the cool blues receding. This stylization and distortion were inspired by African art, which Picasso had first encountered in an ethnographic museum in Paris in May or June 1907.
The term 'Cubism' was coined by the French art critic Louis Vauxcelles, who, upon seeing Braque's paintings in 1908 at L'Estaque, described the geometric forms in the highly abstracted works as "cubes". Other influences on early Cubism have been linked to Primitivism and non-Western sources. Gertrude Stein referred to landscapes made by Picasso in 1909, such as 'Reservoir at Horta de Ebro', as the first Cubist paintings. However, it was 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' that truly presaged the new style.
Following the development of Cubism, Picasso's work moved through many periods, including his Analytic Cubism era (1909-1912) and Synthetic Cubism (1912-1919). During the Analytic Cubism phase, Picasso and Braque used monochrome brownish and neutral colours, taking apart objects and "analysing" them in terms of their shapes. Synthetic Cubism, a further development of the genre, saw the introduction of collage, with cut paper fragments pasted into compositions. Picasso is credited with creating the first Cubist collage, 'Still Life With Chair Caning', in May 1912. Cubism also had a profound influence on 20th-century sculpture and architecture, with major Cubist sculptors including Alexander Archipenko, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, and Jacques Lipchitz.
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The term 'Cubism' was coined by critic Louis Vauxcelles in 1908, after seeing Georges Braque's paintings
Cubism, one of the most influential visual art styles of the early twentieth century, was created by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in Paris between 1907 and 1914. The term "Cubism" was coined by French art critic Louis Vauxcelles in 1908 after seeing Braque's landscapes painted in 1908 at L'Estaque in emulation of Cézanne. Vauxcelles called the geometric forms in the highly abstracted works "cubes".
Vauxcelles was not impressed by Braque's works, describing them as reducing everything to "geometric outlines, to cubes". Matisse had told him that "Braque has just sent in [to the 1908 Salon d'Automne] a painting made of little cubes". The motif of the viaduct at l'Estaque inspired Braque to produce three paintings marked by the simplification of form and deconstruction of perspective.
Georges Braque's 1908 "Houses at L'Estaque" and related works prompted Vauxcelles, in Gil Blas on 25 March 1909, to refer to them as "bizarreries cubiques" (cubic oddities). Gertrude Stein referred to landscapes made by Picasso in 1909, such as "Reservoir at Horta de Ebro", as the first Cubist paintings.
The roots of Cubism are also found in the work of Paul Cézanne, particularly in his breaking of the painted surface into small multifaceted areas of paint, emphasising the plural viewpoint given by binocular vision, and his interest in the simplification of natural forms into cylinders, spheres, and cones. However, the Cubists explored this concept further than Cézanne. They represented all the surfaces of depicted objects in a single picture plane, as if the objects had all their faces visible at the same time. This new kind of depiction revolutionised the way objects could be visualised in painting and art.
Cubism can be seen to have developed in two distinct phases: the initial and more austere analytical cubism, and a later phase of synthetic cubism. Analytical cubism ran from 1908 to 1912 and featured interweaving planes and lines in muted tones of black, grey, and ochre. Synthetic cubism, which generally dates from about 1912 to 1914, is characterised by simpler shapes and brighter colours, often including collaged real elements such as newspapers.
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Cubism was partly influenced by the work of Paul Cézanne
Cubism, an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement, was pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. It is generally agreed that Cubism began around 1907 with Picasso's painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, which included elements of cubist style. The name "Cubism" was coined by the French art critic Louis Vauxcelles, who, after seeing Braque's paintings exhibited in Paris in 1908, described them as reducing everything to "geometric outlines, to cubes".
In addition to Cézanne, Picasso was also inspired by African tribal masks, which are highly stylised and non-naturalistic, and yet present a vivid human image. This influence can be seen in Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, which is characterised by the stylisation and distortion of female nudes.
Following Picasso and Braque's initiation of Cubism, the movement was further developed by many painters, including Fernand Léger, Robert and Sonia Delaunay, Juan Gris, Roger de la Fresnaye, Marcel Duchamp, Albert Gleizes, and Jean Metzinger. Cubism also exerted a profound influence on 20th-century sculpture and architecture, with major Cubist sculptors including Alexander Archipenko, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, and Jacques Lipchitz.
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Cubism's development from 1910 to 1912 is often referred to as Analytical Cubism
Cubism, a highly influential visual arts style of the 20th century, was created by artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in Paris between 1907 and 1914. The movement's development from 1910 to 1912 is often referred to as Analytical Cubism. This phase is characterised by artworks that appear more severe and are made up of an interweaving of planes and lines in muted tones of black, grey and ochre. During this period, the work of Picasso and Braque became so similar that their paintings were almost indistinguishable.
The term Cubism was coined by critic Louis Vauxcelles, who described Braque's 1908 work Houses at L'Estaque as being composed of "cubes". Other influences on early Cubism have been linked to Primitivism and non-Western sources, such as African art. The roots of Cubism can also be found in the later work of artist Paul Cézanne, who painted things from slightly different points of view.
Cubism spread quickly throughout Europe in the 1910s, offering a systematic approach to rendering imagery and the freedom to depict objects in new ways. Cubist painters rejected the traditional techniques of perspective, modelling, and foreshortening, and refuted the long-held belief that art should imitate nature. Instead, they aimed to show different viewpoints at the same time and within the same space, suggesting the three-dimensional form of objects.
During the Analytical Cubism phase, artists like Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Fernand Léger, Robert Delaunay, and Henri Le Fauconnier exhibited works at the Salon des Indépendants in Paris in the spring of 1911, bringing Cubism to the attention of the general public for the first time. Metzinger's Nu à la cheminée (Nude), exhibited at the 1910 Salon d'Automne, is another example of Analytical Cubism, as are Gleizes' Le Dépiquage des Moissons (Harvest Threshing) and Delaunay's City of Paris, both exhibited in 1912.
Following the Analytical Cubism phase, Cubism entered a new stage known as Synthetic Cubism, generally considered to date from 1912 to 1914. This phase is characterised by simpler shapes, brighter colours, and the inclusion of collaged real-world elements such as newspapers.
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Cubism also influenced sculpture and architecture
Pablo Picasso's 1907 painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon is considered the first Cubist painting. It was followed by other early Cubist works such as Georges Braque's Houses at L'Estaque in 1908 and Picasso's Reservoir at Horta de Ebro in 1909.
Cubism was a highly influential visual arts style of the 20th century, and its influence extended beyond painting to sculpture and architecture. Cubist sculpture developed in parallel with Cubist painting. During the autumn of 1909, Picasso sculpted "Head of a Woman (Fernande)", with positive features depicted by negative space and vice versa. According to Douglas Cooper, "The first true Cubist sculpture was Picasso's impressive Woman's Head, modelled in 1909–10, a counterpart in three dimensions to many similar analytical and faceted heads in his paintings at the time."
Other major Cubist sculptors included Alexander Archipenko, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, Jacques Lipchitz, and Joseph Csaky. Archipenko ambitiously exploited the positive/negative reversals in sculptures such as "Woman Walking" (1912-13). Duchamp-Villon's "Facade architectural, plaster" (1913) was an architectural installation exhibited at the 1913 Armory Show in New York, Chicago, and Boston.
Cubism also influenced architecture, particularly in Bohemia (today the Czech Republic) and especially in its capital, Prague. Czech architects were the first and only ones to design original Cubist buildings. Cubist architecture flourished between 1910 and 1914, but Cubist or Cubism-influenced buildings were also built after World War I.
In 1927, several Cubist artists collaborated in the decoration of a Studio House in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France. The house was designed by the architect Paul Ruaud and owned by the fashion designer Jacques Doucet, a collector of Cubist paintings. The Cubist artists who collaborated on the project included Joseph Csaky, Jacques Lipchitz, Louis Marcoussis, and Henri Laurens. Laurens designed the fountain, Csaky designed the staircase, Lipchitz made the fireplace mantel, and Marcoussis made a Cubist rug.
The influence of Cubism can also be seen in the development of the Art Deco movement. The furnishings, wallpaper, upholstery, and carpets designed by André Mare for the 1913 Armory Show exhibited early examples of the influence of Cubism on what would become Art Deco. These designs featured brightly coloured roses and other floral patterns in stylised geometric forms.
Overall, Cubism had a profound and lasting impact on sculpture and architecture, influencing artists and architects in the early 20th century and beyond.
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Frequently asked questions
It is generally agreed that Cubism began around 1907 with Picasso's painting 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon', which included elements of Cubist style.
Cubism was principally invented by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in Paris between 1907 and 1914.
Cubist paintings show objects and people from multiple angles, abandoning the Renaissance concept of space and the traditional rules of perspective. They also tend to feature monochromatic colour schemes and geometric shapes.
