CUBISM
THE FIRST FORM OF ABSTRACT ART
PICASSO AND BRAQUE WITH INFLUENCES FROM CÉZANNE
INFLUENCES ON CUBISM
• Paul Cézanne changed
styles and habits
• Variations of tone and color
• Geometric shapes: cylinder,
sphere, cone
• Varied approach while
revisiting subjects
• “My one and only master…
Cézanne was like the father
of us all”. -Pablo Picasso
Large Bathers – Paul Cezanne – 1899-1906
INFLUENCES ON CUBISM
• African art has influenced
many art movements
• Motivated artists to create
their own interpretations of
what they saw
• Themes adapted from
African art
• Distorted African masks
influenced the earliest cubist
paintings.
Fang Mask 56 – the
Fang tribe
Les Demoiselles
d’Avignon – Pablo
Picasso – 1907
INTRODUCTION TO CUBISM
Cubism is a form of
abstract art which
emphasizes the twodimensionality of the
canvas.
The Guitar
Player – Pablo
Picasso –
1910
Characteristics:
• Objects are shown from
multiple perspectives at
once.
• Everything is portrayed
with geometric shapes.
• It portrayed a “new
way of seeing,” which
infused observations
and memories into
paintings.
EARLY CUBISM
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon –
Pablo Picasso – 1907
Viaduct at L'Estaque – Georges
Braque – 1908
ANALYTICAL CUBISM
(Or, that period of cubism where it’s really hard to tell
what anything is, and who the artist is.)
Characteristics of Analytical Cubism:
•Objects are “analyzed” from many perspectives.
•Artist incorporates many (if not all) of these
perspectives in the painting itself.
•The painting, instead of directly showing the
subject, “evokes a sense of the subject.”
Fruit Dish, Ace of
Clubs – Georges
Braque - 1913
Still Life With a
Violin –
Georges Braque
– 1912
The Guitar
Player – Pablo
Picasso – 1910
Portrait of DanielHenry Kahnweiler –
Pablo Picasso – 1910
GUESS THE ARTIST!
GUESS THE ARTIST!
Ma Jolie – Pablo Picasso – 1911
Violin and Jug – Georges Braque – 1910
SYNTHETIC CUBISM
(or, thank God, I can actually tell what I’m looking at
in this painting!)
Characteristics of Synthetic Cubism:
•Objects are still drawn from multiple perspectives,
BUT…
•They are more discernable,
•And they are more colorful.
Black Fish – Georges Braque – 1942
Le Jour – Georges Braque – 1929
Three Musicians – Pablo Picasso – 1921
Still Life With Mandolin and Guitar – Pablo Picasso - 1924
OTHER NOTABLES
• Juan Gris is considered the “Third Musketeer” of
Cubism
• Fernand Léger painted World War II inspired
Cubist paintings, which created social
commentary of the time he lived in
• Robert Delaunay spun off of Cubism with
“orphism,” which is just cubism with more circles
• Marcel Duchamp didn’t always paint, but when
he did, he painted cubism.
Guitar and Clarinet – Juan Gris – 1920
Soldiers Playing Cards – Fernand Léger – 1917
Homage to Bleriot – Robert Delaunay – 1914
Nude Descending a
Staircase – Marcel
Duchamp – 1912