Cubism was an early 20th century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture. Developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in Paris between 1907-1914, Cubism was characterized by the geometric fragmentation and multiple perspectives of subjects depicted. Key aspects included depicting subjects from multiple angles, breaking up forms into geometric shapes, and juxtaposing detached images to represent subjects from a multitude of viewpoints. Major Cubist artists included Picasso, Braque, and Juan Gris, while Robert Delaunay, Sonia Delaunay, and Fernand Léger developed related styles influenced by Cubism's fragmentation of form.

1. CUBISM
Revision

2. History
• 1907 is taken as the date in which Cubism
was born, when Picasso and Braque met
each other.
• `Les Demoiselles d’Avignon is the painting
considered to be the precursor of the
movement.
• After that, Picasso forgot any kind of artistic
depiction different from the cubism.
• The name was given to the movement after
the words of the critic Louis Vauxcelles who
said that the forms were `strange cubic
forms .

3. Characteristics
• Cubism is not something theoretical, but a
discovery.
• Its characteristics are the following:
– -Plans are independent and
autonomous: smaller ones break big
volumes. Lines around break the images
and when the lines themselves are
broken the image remains a
kaleidoscope.
– Perspective is multiple: each plan is
autonomous. The angles multiply and in
this way we can see the object from
different points of view, all together.

4. Characteristics
– Light and shade disappear: this is a
consequence of the dissolution of the
volume.
– Local colour: Colour is not important. It is
applied through small brushstrokes and
it is valid for any object. Geometrization:
Compositions are full of geometrical
shapes. Any natural depiction is
represented through cylinder, cone,
sphere, or cubes. Cezanne had
pioneered this idea.

5. Characteristics
– Philosophical basis: the work of some
philosophers as Bergson is essential to
understand this movement. He said that
a person has in his brain a lot of
information about an object and the
experience is the basis for intellectuality.
Cubist painters apply this concept: they
do not want to represent reality, but the
ideas they have about that reality.

6. Artists
• The main representatives of the
movement are:
– Picasso,
– Braque
– and Juan Gris.
• In a different level
– Robert and Sonia Delaunay
– and Leger.

7. Picasso
• Work prior to
cubism
• African influence
• Natural forms are
separated in order
to depict things
through
geometrical forms
• Different plans at
depicted at the
same time

8. Picasso

9. Picasso

10. Picasso

11. Picasso

12. Braque

13. Juan Gris

14. Juan Gris

15. Periods
• There are three different periods
in Cubism: analytic, hermetic
and synthetic, that developed in
that order.
– Analytic Cubism:
Artists investigated nature to
distort and deform it. All the
works are a collection of
different plans completely
impossible to understand.

16. Periods
– Hermetic Cubism: Artists aimed at
making their works easier to be
understood, so that they included some
elements that would be identified such
as musical instruments. During this
period some realist elements appeared
too, as printing characters, numbers,
newspaper pieces, or labels. They
wanted to transmit the idea of a
combination of different materials by
imitating wood or marble.

17. Periods
– Synthetic Cubism: Collages are included
in the works as a sculptural antecedent.
They do not imitate things, but they glue
them to the canvas. These works are
known with the name `papier collé .
Braque was the first using this technique
through which he aimed at linking art
and life. It offers the possibility of having
a real reference. Painting is revised and
new ways are opened for the artists. Now
they are not limited to painting but they
built in some way. This technique paved
the way for the third dimension and for
the sculpture.

18. Types
Analytic Synthetic

19. Influences
• These collages would be
influential on
– the Dadaist work, where the
`ready-made produced by
Duchamp are the heirs of them.
– Italian futurism took their
simplified forms but with stronger
and vivid colours

20. Other artists
• Leger produced works in which
colour had a bigger importance
• He sometimes represented
tubular structures that remain
machines
• In other of his works line and
colour are independent, and do
not fit perfectly well
• He used flat colours limited by
black lines.

21. Leger

22. Other artists
• Sonia and Robert Delaunay
produced works with simple shapes
of harmonic colours, developing an
style known as orphism.
• Their style is full of lyrism
• Robert used straight lines and
sometimes we can distinguish well
known images (not always)
• Sonia preferred harmonic colours
and curve shapes.

23. Robert Delaunay

24. Sonia Delaunay