Cubism (circa 1906-30) Grades 8-12

Cubism was one of the most complex and influential art movements and was unique in that it presented a formula by which artists could achieve their objectives.

The Spaniard Pablo Picasso and the French artist Georges Braque are regarded as the founders for Cubism, but were influenced by the paintings of Cezanne and the abstract simplicity of primitive sculpture such as those of the Cycladic art. Many artists joined them in their severely disciplined approach to painting which was concerned with what objects are, rather than how they may appear.

The first stage of this style’s development was the Proto Cubist stage, which evolved in 1906. Keeping within a narrow subject range of still-lives, portraits and some landscapes, images were reduced to their basic forms of cone, cube, sphere and cylinder.

The second stage was that of Analytical Cubism. Here, objects were visually broken down into parts, or different views of the same object, and then re-assembled to make a new pattern that suited the artist. This created a linkage of forms, shapes and lines which were often superimposed. The distraction and appeal of colour were to be denied and the artist confined themselves to painting in monochromes.

The last stage was that of Synthetic Cubism, which evolved around 1912. Now the paintings appeared flatter and more abstract and clues to identity such as numbers, names or imitation textures were included. Brighter colour was used and sometimes applied in a pointillist manner (derived from Seurat). Real and printed textures were collaged to the picture surface. Jan Gris was a leading artist in this more creative approach.

As a style, Cubism reacted against romantic Realist painting, the prettiness of Impressionism and up until the last stage, the decorative colour of Fauvism.

A) B) C)

A) Proto Cubism. Simplifying objects to their basic forms. B) Analytical Cubism. Painting multi-views of the same object. Visually breaking down in parts and re-assembling to make a new pattern. Superimposing shapes creates and illusion of transparency and movement. C) Synthetic Cubism. Later phases became more abstract but left some clues to identify subject matter. Real and imitation textures were collaged to picture surfaces. Pointillist brushwork was used decoratively.