5 Things to know about Cubism

1. Cubism owes its origins to the work of Paul Cézanne...

In 1907, Picasso and Braque attended a retrospective of Paul Cézanne's work. His works opened up new perspectives for them, particularly in the treatment of space and form. Picasso paid close attention to a phrase written by Cézanne, in which the latter advocated "treating nature with the cylinder, the sphere, the cone".

2. …but also African Art

At the end of the 19th century, European artists were fascinated by the so-called "primitive" arts, which included African and Oceanic art. Henri Matisse in particular showed Pablo Picasso African masks, which fascinated the young painter and inspired him greatly during the creation of Cubism, particularly for the faces.

3. It was created by (just) two artists

Cubism is one of the few major artistic movements to have been conceptualised by just... two people: Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. But it was not they who invented the name. History is reluctant to credit Henri Matisse or the art critic Louis Vauxcelles... One thing is certain: they did, however, initiate this veritable pictorial revolution. These two young painters, who were little known at the time, both experimented with the use of geometric shapes to represent reality. Sometimes it doesn't take many people to change history...

4. There are 3 types of Cubism

The movement developed between 1908 and 1916 in three phases. First came Cézanian cubism, then Analytical cubism, and finally Synthetic cubism. Each phase had its own characteristics and attempts!

5. Cubism also existed in sculpture... and even in literature!

Many artists, such as Lipchitz, Archipemko and Duchamp-Villon, followed the precepts and ideas of Cubism. They applied them to sculpture. The same decomposed, geometric forms can be found in sculpture as in painting.

The movement even spread to literature, with Guillaume Apollinaire in particular creating calligrammes in the 1910s: poems whose graphic layout forms a design.