Cubist Paintings

Renowned Cubist Artists and Cubist Paintings

Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque are considered the founders of Cubism. Highly productive between 1907 and 1914, these artists’ works created a huge scandal in the art world as they introduced the public to cubist painting (ex: Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, Pablo Picasso). 

Cubism is characterized by the deconstruction of volume in cubes (hence the movement's name) which, alternating or flat on the canvas, lead to the absence of perspective. Without restricting themselves to a single medium or technique, cubist artists use oil (The Guitarist, Pablo Picasso), acrylic, ink and charcoal in their cubist paintings (Fruit Dish and Cards, George Braque). 

Combining techniques and supports, they even created collages by inserting everyday objects into their cubist painting (Still-life with Chair Caning, Picasso). Picasso and Braques' heirs include the Cubist painters Juan Gris, Fernand Léger, Jean Metzinger and Robert Delauney. A key movement in the history of art, Cubism and Cubist portraits paved the way for Orphism, Futurism and Suprematism.

The History of Cubism and Cubist Painting

Three major periods are defined by art historians to describe the evolution of the cubist painting movement. Taking inspiration from primitive art, Japanese prints and the work of Paul Cézanne, who gradually divided space into geometric forms, Picasso and Braque decided to push their reflections even further by completely removing perspective, creating Cezannian Cubism (1907-1909).

From 1909 to 1912, a period known as Analytical Cubism was marked by a series of experiments and studies that delved deep into the deconstruction of objects. This was followed by the period of Synthetic Cubism, lasting from 1912 to 1914, which, as its name implies, synthesized all of the progress of the previous years, directly introducing to the canvas the concept of the everyday, leading to the first cubist collages and cubist paintings.