Essay on Cubism : Art Movements Of The Twentieth Century

Cubism is one of the most important art movements of the twentieth century. It is typically associated with Pablo Picasso a modernist Spanish painter. Cubism was co-invented by Picasso and Georges Braque a French painter, between the years of 1908 and 1912 in Paris, France. According to Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker, the post-impressionist artist Paul Cezanne inspired Picasso and Braque with his flattened planes that “sought to undermine illusion of depth (Harris and Zucker).” However, Cubism took this idea further by making “ordinary objects … look as if they have exploded and been reassembled somewhat arbitrarily in geometric bits and pieces that rest on the surface of the picture plane (Fiero, 359).” In other words, Cubism challenged the conventional unified figure by breaking it apart to juxtapose many perspectives in a single dimension. Nonetheless, cubism goes beyond the breakdown of form, it challenges the common belief that art should be pleasing to the eye. This is apparent in Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon a founding piece in the development of the Cubism. Gloria K. Fiero mentions, “Les Demoiselles violated every shred of tradition, making even Manet’s Olympia look comfortably old-fashioned (Fiero, 358).” This is important because although disliked by most art critics this piece set a precedent for the future of the Cubism art movement. Cubism itself is subdivided in two phases Analytic Cubism and Synthetic Cubism. The first phase Analytic Cubism,…