Cubism, including Analytic Cubism (1909-1912), and later Synthetic Cubism (1912-1919), was one of the most influential art styles of the early twentieth century. Developed by Pablo Picasso and George Braque, Analytic Cubism took objects apart and “analyzed” them in terms of their shapes, while Synthetic Cubism utilized cut paper fragments, including portions of newspaper pages or wallpaper, which were pasted into compositions. Interestingly, Synthetic Cubism marked the first use of collage in fine art.

The term Cubism was coined after the French art critic, Louis Vauxcelles, saw the landscapes painted by Braque in 1908 at L’Estaque. Vauxcelles called the geometric forms in the abstract works cubes. The idea that art should copy nature was rejected by the Cubist painters, as were the traditional techniques of perspective, foreshortening, and modeling. Instead, they reduced objects to geometric forms and realigned them within a shallow, relief-like space, while also using multiple or contrasting vantage points. According to Picasso, “A head is a matter of eyes, nose, mouth, which can be distributed in any way you like. The head remains a head.” Through these methods, they achieved their goal of emphasizing the two-dimensionality of the canvas.

Initially, the subjects in Cubist works, though dissected and reassembled, were discernible. However, during “high” Analytic Cubism, the works of Braque and Picasso became so abstracted that they were reduced to a series of overlapping planes and facets. Their favorite motifs, frequently rendered in near-monochromatic blacks, grays, and browns, were still lifes with musical instruments, pitchers, glasses, bottles, playing cards, newspapers, and the human face and figure.

Toward the end of 1912, Picasso and Braque stripped away whatever remained of three-dimensional space in their “high” Analytic work. The result, Synthetic Cubism, was created using large pieces of neutral or colored paper, either cut out in the shape of the object being alluded to, or bearing a graphic element which clarifies the association.

Cubism, though created by Picasso and Braque, would go on to be adopted and further developed by a number of painters, including Juan Gris, Marcel Duchamp, and Diego Rivera. The concepts initiated by Cubism had even more far-reaching consequences, influencing the likes of Dada and Surrealism, as well as abstract artists in Germany, Holland, Italy, England, America, and Russia.