Green and Red Leafages

Description: Although Cubism ultimately depends upon subject matter it became along with Fauvism the art movement that directly opened the door to abstraction in the 20th century. Pablo Picasso made his first cubist paintings based on C¨¦zanne's idea that all depiction of nature can be reduced to three solids: cube, sphere and cone. With the painting Les... ( +expand to view full text )

Description: Although Cubism ultimately depends upon subject matter it became along with Fauvism the art movement that directly opened the door to abstraction in the 20th century. Pablo Picasso made his first cubist paintings based on C¨¦zanne's idea that all depiction of nature can be reduced to three solids: cube, sphere and cone. With the painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon 1907, Picasso dramatically created a new and radical picture depicting a raw and primitive brothel scene with five prostitutes, violently painted women, reminiscent of African tribal masks and his own new Cubist inventions. Analytic cubism was jointly developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, from about 1908 through 1912. Analytic cubism, the first clear manifestation of cubism, was followed by Synthetic cubism, practised by Braque, Picasso, Fernand L¨¦ger, Juan Gris, Albert Gleizes, Marcel Duchamp and countless other artists into the 1920s. Synthetic cubism is characterized by the introduction of different textures, surfaces, collage elements, papier coll¨¦ and a large variety of merged subject matter. The collage artists like Kurt Schwitters and Man Ray and others taking the clue from Cubism were instrumental to the development of the movement called Dada.