The Cubist Revolution | Guy Lyman Fine Art

Cubism, one of the most influential art movements of the early 20th century, fundamentally transformed how artists represented reality (1). Pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in Paris between 1907 and 1914, Cubism rejected traditional techniques of perspective and representation that had dominated Western art since the Renaissance (3). Instead of creating the illusion of three-dimensional space from a fixed viewpoint, Cubist artists emphasized the two-dimensional nature of the canvas, breaking objects into geometric forms and reassembling them to show multiple perspectives simultaneously (4). This revolutionary approach reflected the rapidly changing modern world, with its complexities and contradictions(11).

At Guy Lyman Fine Art, our inventory includes standout cubist pieces from the 20th and 21st centuries.

Still Life — Emanuel Glicenstein Romano

The Birth and Development of Cubism

Several key influences shaped Picasso and Braque's artistic vision (1). Paul Cézanne's late works, which depicted objects from slightly different viewpoints, provided one source of inspiration (3). Additionally, Picasso drew heavily from African tribal masks and non-Western art forms he encountered at Paris's ethnographic museum in 1907 (1). The watershed moment for Cubism came with Picasso's groundbreaking 1907 painting "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," which depicted five nude women with angular, disjointed bodies and faces influenced by African masks (23). This proto-Cubist work predicted key characteristics of the movement with its radical distortion of figures and fragmented planes (4).

The term "Cubism" itself was coined by French art critic Louis Vauxcelles in 1908 after seeing Georges Braque's landscape paintings exhibited in Paris, describing them as reducing everything to "geometric outlines, to cubes" (3). Following this initial phase, Cubism developed into two distinct periods: Analytical Cubism (1908-1912), characterized by muted colors and fragmented forms, and Synthetic Cubism (1912-1914), which featured simpler shapes, brighter colors, and collage elements(3).

Controversy Over Cubist Paintings

Cubist paintings provoked immediate controversy and backlash (8). Critics and the public alike were bewildered by works that seemed to deliberately mislead viewers with their fragmented forms and rejection of traditional perspective (12). Even fellow artists were initially hostile; Henri Matisse reportedly called Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon" "hideous," while others dismissed it as a crude joke (18). Newspapers fueled public fears about Cubism, disparaging the artists as "freaks" and their artworks as "ugly" and "degenerate" (8). A New York Times editorial went so far as to call Cubism a "false art" that was part of a general movement "to disrupt and degrade, if not to destroy, not only art, but literature and society, too" (8).

Despite this hostile reception, the innovations of Cubist paintings would transform modern art(4). By breaking objects down into distinct planes, Cubist artists showed different viewpoints simultaneously, suggesting three-dimensional form while emphasizing the canvas's flatness (3). They explored open form by letting space flow through objects and blending background into foreground (4). These techniques created a new and literally multi-faceted visual language (9).

Dynamo — Lech Ostrokow

Cubism Today

Cubism served as the foundation for numerous early 20th-century styles, including Constructivism, Futurism, Suprematism, Orphism, and De Stijl (4). Many important artists went through a Cubist phase in their development, including Marcel Duchamp, whose "Nude Descending a Staircase" (1912) created controversy at the 1913 Armory Show in New York (4). Cubism's emphasis on geometric shapes and abstraction influenced Surrealism, with artists like Salvador Dalí and René Magritte using Cubist fragmentation to create dreamlike scenarios (16). The movement also impacted Abstract Expressionism, with artists like Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning drawing upon Cubism's formal experimentation (16).

Beyond painting, Cubism exerted significant influence on sculpture and architecture, with major Cubist sculptors including Alexander Archipenko, Raymond Duchamp-Villon, and Jacques Lipchitz (1). The movement's ideas even fed into more popular phenomena like Art Deco design (4). Cubism's pivotal moment in art history made non-representational art possible, and its reverberations continue into contemporary art (4).

By fragmenting reality and reassembling it from multiple perspectives, Picasso, Braque, and their contemporaries created a new and distinctly modern artistic approach (11). Though initially met with hostility and confusion, cubist paintings paved the way for abstract art and the countless movements that followed (4). A century later, Cubism continues to inspire artists who seek to challenge conventional ways of seeing and representing reality (16).

Browse cubist and cubist-inspired figures and still lifes, and a plethora of other fine art pieces, for sale at Guy Lyman Fine Art !

St. George and the Dragon — George Zafero

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