Cubism

Pablo Picasso
Nude Woman
Image courtesy of
The National Gallery of Art, U.S.A

Time Period:
Early 20th Century

Background:
When the Fauvist group eventually separated and many went on to Cubism. Cubism was a style created by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. The roots of the styles show a lot of Cezannesque techniques but the actual origins are debatable. Nonetheless, Cubism was a movement that changed the way people viewed things, and led the way to being arguably the most influential movements of the 20th century.

Effect on Faces and Figures:
Cubism started out as being a style of simplification. The first stage, or synthetic stage, typically would break down forms to simple geometric shapes like the cone, the cylinder, and the cube. Thus if the subject was a person, all that is seen is the planes of the face rather than a smooth, detailed version. Later, it developed into Analytic Cubism, which fragmented the objects like a shattered mirror. Cubism at its most abstract stage was still objective. The artists gave hints as to what the subject was. In the case of the human face, the eyes and nose were the most prevalent aspect of the image. The Cubists contradicted Renaissance perspective, and try to show images in more than on perspective. For example, the eyes might be looking straight at the viewer, but the nose might point to the side, or more planes are seen at once than physically possible. Other characteristics include the intersection of planes and reduction in color.

Famous Artists:
Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Juan Gris, Fernand Léger