Cubism

Cubism is an early 20th-century avant-garde art movement that emerged in Paris between 1907 and 1914. Pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, it challenged traditional perspective by presenting subjects from multiple viewpoints and fragmenting form into geometric facets. The movement evolved through two major phases: Analytic Cubism (roughly 1908–1912), characterized by subdued palettes, dense interlocking planes, and a deconstruction of objects; and Synthetic Cubism (from about 1912), which reintroduced simpler shapes, brighter colors, and the use of collage, such as newspaper, wallpaper, and fabric.

Influences included the still-life studies of Cézanne and non-Western and Iberian sculpture, as well as Post-Impressionist experimentation with form and space. Analytic works often resembled abstracted form broken into facets, while Synthetic works began to reassemble images into recognizable but stylized compositions. The movement affected painting and sculpture and laid groundwork for later modernist developments, inspiring Futurism, Constructivism, and Bauhaus approaches, as well as proto-abstract tendencies in architecture and design.

Notable works include Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), Braque's Bottle and Fishes and Still Life with a Violin, illustrating the shift toward fragmented space and graphed planes. By the mid-1910s, Cubism had evolved into a broader program of exploring form and representation rather than a single stylistic label. Cubism is regarded as one of the most influential movements in the history of modern art, redefining how space, time, and perception could be represented on a two-dimensional surface.