The art movement, Cubism, began in 1908 and strongly influenced art and sculpture in the early 20C.

Cubism dissected painted images, then reassembled them as abstract forms. Cubism showed images which could be seen from all angles. Subjects were painted in cube form, hence the name, Cubism.

French painters, Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso were foremost in introducing the movement. They worked closely until 1914. By 1910 cubism had become popular and was known as theCubist School.

Other art movements began and new trends developed.

Analytical cubism displayed surfaces closely patterned with incomplete lines, which played the forms against one another. Often the works were painted in the same tone, making it difficult to identify images. Artists left clues, such as a pipe suggested someone smoking; also alphabetic letters, a newspaper or a bottle of wine.

In 1912 synthetic cubism emerged. Small objects were painted over then stuck onto the canvas, and superimposed one over another. Brighter colours replaced the dark, monochromatic scales which were hard to decipher.

Paper replaced paint and was pasted onto canvas forming an image. Patches cut from newspaper, presented images. Paper with woodprint, advertisements, were more colorful. Sand textured canvasses worked with graphite or charcoal forming shadows.

Copyright.

Margaret Houghton.

[Not for publication: woodprint or woodcuts were images carved out of wood and pressed onto paper to make an image.

The names Pablo Picasso(Spanish) and Georges Braque(French) are the proper names of the two artists who were involved in Cubism.]