cubism

emerging around 1907 & lasting through 1914, cubism was a revolutionary art movement pioneered by Pablo Picasso & Georges Braque in France. Coined by French art critic Louis Vauxcelles in 1908, the term "cubism" directly reflects the movement's central focus on breaking down objects & forms into geometric shapes, predominantly cubes, & reassembling them in a multidimensional & abstracted manner. Cubism dismantled the naturalistic perspective that had dominated Western art since the Renaissance. Instead, it approached objects & scenes from multiple angles simultaneously, resulting in fragmented, geometric compositions that challenged the viewer’s perception of reality.

By presenting several viewpoints at once, Cubism offered a more complete depiction of subjects, aligning art with the emerging 20th-century scientific & philosophical ideas about relativity & subjective experience.

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