Cubism emerged in France in the early 1900s led by Picasso and Braque who were influenced by Cezanne's geometric breakdown of forms. They depicted objects from multiple perspectives simultaneously on canvas. This analytical cubism gave way to synthetic cubism where collage elements were incorporated. Other notable cubists included Gris, Delaunay, Leger, and Duchamp. While revolutionary, cubism was highly controversial as it broke conventions and its abstract forms were difficult for audiences to understand. Over time it had a massive influence on modern art.

1. By: Katie Vincent, Laura Castle,
Grace Stover

2. Cubism Time Period
• The cubism era started in France in the early 20th century
(around 1907), but its ideas and concepts have continued
to influence art today.
• The early 20th century was a time of change in the art
world in France, yet cubism was still highly rejected. Many
people said it was ugly and that they were unable to
understand it.
• The scientific and philosophical changes at the time
influenced the subject matter within cubist artwork and
peoples ability to accept the changes cubism was making
in the art world.
• Cubism offered a visual equivalent of a fundamental
aspect of the 20th century experience

3. About Cubism
• The name Cubism was suggested by Henri Matisse in 1909. He
observed that the pictures themselves consisted of "nothing but little
cubes."
• The idea behind Cubism is to show the essence of an object by
displaying it from many different angles and points of view at the
same time. An object is broken up, analyzed from many different
perspectives and reassembled in abstract form.
• An object could be reconstructed using separate views which
overlapped and intersected.
• The Cubists wanted to make pictures that reached beyond the rigid
geometry of perspective. They wanted to introduce the idea of
“relativity” which is how the artist perceived and selected elements
from the subject, fusing both their observations and memories into
the one concentrated image.

4. • The Cubists proposed that your sight of an object is the sum of
many different views and your memory of an object is not
constructed from on angle, in one perspective, but from many
angles selected by your sight and movement.
• A typical Cubist painting depicts real people, places, or objects, but
not from a fixed view point.
• Cubist paintings are abstract, they are an attempt at a more realistic
way of seeing.
• Substitutes a radically new fusion of mass and void. Cubism offered
an unstable structure of dismembered planes in indeterminate
spatial positions.
• Cubism proposed that the work of art was itself a reality that
represented the very process by which nature is transformed into
art.

5. • The Cubist palette was restricted to a narrow, almost
monochromatic scale, dominated by grays and browns.
• Cubist art always has an ultimate reference to external reality,
without which it could not express the fundamental tension
between the demands of nature and the demands of art.
• Many of their subjects, either people or landscapes, were
represented as combinations of basic geometric shapes. The
essential geometric shapes were the cube, the sphere, the cylinder,
and the cone.
• In front of a Cubist painting, the spectator was to realize that no
single interpretation of the fluctuating shapes, textures, spaces, and
objects could be complete in itself.

6. Characteristics of Cubism
-splintered shapes, flattened space and
geometric blocks of color
-quest to find a new concept of painting as an
arrangement of form and color on a 2-D
surface
-multiple angles
-reconstruct objects
-battle between what the eyes see and what
the mind knows is suppose to be there

7. Paul Cézanne and his influence
• He liked to flatten the space in his paintings to
place emphasis on their surface: to stress the
difference between a painting and reality.
• He saw painting in more abstract terms as the
construction and arrangement of color on a
2D surface.
• The flat abstract approach appealed to the
cubists and their early painting.

8. • Cézanne was a French artist during the Post-
Impressionist era and his ideas behind art influenced
Fauvism, Cubism, and Expressionism.
• He used color, line, and form in his work to describe
how the human eye sees nature.
• He said that painting is a reflection of visual perception
and the canvas takes the role of a screen where visual
sensations are registered. He wanted to incorporate
multiple viewing angles into work.
• Cézanne use many colors of paint and applied them
with a series of discrete, methodical brushstrokes,
making it seem that he was constructing a picture.
• He also said that every portion of the canvas should
contribute to its overall structural integrity.

9. • Cézanne’s architectural approach to everything
in nature is based on the sphere, cone, and
cylinder, influenced cubist’s abstract
landscapes and geometrical dimensions. He
taught them to break down simple objects into
multiple shapes.
• He also taught cubists the importance of
viewing objects from multiple angles and trying
to incorporate them onto one canvas. Cubists
then incorporated the multiple views into one,
having overlapping parts that have their own
shape and color.

10. • Along with Cézanne’s paintings, the
publication in 1907 of a letter written by
Cézanne to Emile Bernard influenced Braque
and Picasso, too.
• This letter contained the famous sentence:
“you must see in nature the cylinder, the
sphere, and the cone.”
• Picasso and Braque followed this advice and
initiated the movement by reducing to
fundamental geometric forms of nature.

11. Cezanne: Rocky Landscape at Aix, 1887

12. Picasso
• Picasso’s cubist art was influenced by Cezanne and
African Sculpture.
• He worked with Braque and their influences on each
others works allowed for the development of cubism as
we know it.
• Known for depicting figures from multiple, exaggerated
viewpoints
• Geometric implications and contrasting vantage-points
for different features became a central factor in his
artwork.
• Known for deconstructing and abstracting his work. He
felt the composition of his work was more important
than the visual appearance.

13. • Shows rendering of three dimensions by shifting
viewpoints and of volume or mass in terms of flat
planes/
• Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon shows the
exaggerated viewpoints applied to all figures.
• His use of contrasting vantage points for different
features became a central factor in the practice of all
Cubists
• Picasso wanted the mind to direct the optical
exploration. His use of geometric figures force this.

14. Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

15. Picasso’s Dora Maar

16. Georges Braque
A part inventor of cubism

17. • Braque started as a Fauvist
• In 1908, he was producing his earliest canvases that were heavily
influenced by Cézanne
• Critics claimed he ‘reduced everything to cubes.’
• In 1909, Braque formed an alliance with Pablo Picasso.
• Together, they made cubism a new art form
• Remembered as ‘brothers in cubism’
• In 1911, Braque started using numbers and letters in his canvases
• Between 1912-1914, the translation from analytical to synthetic
cubism occurred and Braque’s pieces became less colorful and
recognizable
• In 1914, Braque returned from World War 1 and felt that Picasso had
betrayed the Cubist system and rules. Their partnership then ended.
• Braque parted from cubism thereafter and pursued other art forms
• He was still a major influence in cubism, a creator and an inspiration
to many other cubists

18. ‘Nude’ – Braque 1908

19. ‘Viaduct at L'Estaque’ – Braque
(1908)

20. ‘Bottle and Fishes’ – Braque (1910)

21. ‘Fruit Dish, Ace of Clubs’ – Braque (1913)

22. Braque & Picasso Influence Each Other
• Picasso and Braque were the fathers of Cubism.
• Picasso and Braque were greatly influenced by African sculpture, by
painters Paul Cézanne and George Seurat, and by the fauves.
• Beginning in 1912, the work of Picasso and Braque is based on the
radically new principle that the pictorial illusion takes place upon
the physical reality of an opaque surface rather that behind the
illusion of a transparent plane.
• Around 1912, Picasso and Braque had such similar styles that it was
difficult to tell their paintings apart. Their work was increasingly
abstract and less recognizable as the subject of their titles.
• The close contact between Picasso and Braque was crucial to the
style of Cubism. The two artists collaborated very closely, regularly
meeting to discuss their progress.

23. “The Portuguese” by
Braque (1911)

24. “The Accordionist” by Pablo
Picasso (1911)

25. • Both are examples of Analytical Cubism. They
both have a reduced color palette of grays and
browns which was a method used to bring out an
objects spatial qualities rather than appearance.
You can see the geometric shapes in each
painting and the multiple view points.

26. Forms of Cubism
Analytical Cubism: This was the early form of cubism
that lasted until about 1912. It abandoned perspective
and the artist analyzed the subject from many different
view points and reconstructed it within a geometric
frame work. The overall effect was to create an image
that evoked a sense of the subject. The art work was
unified by the use of a subdued and limited palette of
colors. Analytic cubists reduced natural forms to their
basic geometric parts and then tried to reconcile these
essentially 3-D parts with the 2-D picture plane.

27. Metzinger: Tea Time,
1911

28. Synthetic Cubism: Began around 1912. It no longer concerned
with exploring the anatomy of nature, but turns to the creation of
a new anatomy that is far less dependent upon the principle of
perception. Now the painters attention was focused on the
construction, not the analysis of the object (creation, not
recreation).
• Color regained its decorative function instead of being restricted to
the naturalistic description.
• Compositions were static and centered but they lost their depth
and became abstract
• The construction requirements brought about the introduction of
new textures and new materials.

29. “The Three
Musicians” by
Pablo Picasso

30. Collages
• Later inventions in Cubism arose from a desire to
emphasize further the material identity of the art
object and to convey the subject matter more
lucidly.
• Picasso glued a factory made piece of oilcloth
printed with a realistic chair-caning pattern onto
a small still life. This was regarded as the first
Cubist Collage.
• Collages have material reference to non-artistic
realities. They acted as a way to incorporate real
life objects into paintings.

31. Picasso: Still life with chair caning. 1911-12

32. Other Painters of
Cubism
Gris, Delaunay, Léger, and
Duchamp

33. Juan Gris
• Spanish Cubist
• Painter and sculptor, worked in France most of
his life
• Often referred to as the ‘third musketeer of
cubism’
• Made some of cubism’s most distinctive works

34. ‘Portrait of Picasso’ – Gris (1912)

35. ‘Violin and Grass’ – Gris (1913)

36. Robert Delaunay
• French artist
• Both he and his wife took part in
cubism
• Abstract artist known for his use of
bold colors in cubism

37. ‘City of Paris’ – Delaunay (1912)

38. ‘Nude Descending a Staircase No. 2’ – Duchamp (1912)
This is known as the most
famous Cubist painting
in America

39. Ferdinand Léger
• French painter and sculptor in cubism
• In his early works he created a personal form
of Cubism which he gradually modified into a
more figurative, populist style
• Known as one of the creators of the ‘pop art’
style

40. ‘Blue Vase Composition’ – Léger (1918)

41. ‘Three Women’ – Léger (1921)

42. Reactions from the public
• Picasso overcame socially unacceptable portrayals in his art
by incorporating ideas about erotic sexuality into his work.
• People were outraged by the subject matter in the
geometric emphasis in the cubists work.
• Cubism broke the restrictive chains of 19th-Century art’s
balanced structure and well-defined order
• An industrialized society dominated by mass production,
poster art, and printing techniques changed the visual
landscape of Paris seemingly overnight. Picasso inspired an
official reaction by painting a new form of visual art.
• In later years, Cubism was victimized by its politics, its
critical reaction, and a fierce sense of nationalism.