Pablo Picasso And George Braque

Cubism was an innovative style of art in the twentieth century, created by Pablo Picasso and George Braque between 1907 and 1914. It known as the first abstract style in art. In Cubism, artists would break their subject into different geometric shapes and paint them from different angles. The Cubist looked at their subjects from different viewpoints in an effort to add dimension on a flat canvas. The name “cubism” is derived from a remark made by critic Louis Vauxcelles, who sarcastically described George Braque’s work Houses at L’Estaque (1908) as being composed of cubes. The Cubists rejected the traditional techniques such as perspective, modeling, and foreshortening, which was used since the Renaissance. (MET Museum Text) The goal of the Cubists was to separate from the traditional techniques, while creating a new form of artistic expression which helped to reflect the modern age.

Cubist paintings typically depict people or objects from an unconventional viewpoint. Cubist paintings show you many parts of the subject at once, viewed from different angles, and assembled into an arrangement of different forms and colors. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (1907) by Picasso is the most famous example of cubism painting. (Pablopicasso.org) Pablo Picasso’s passionate and provocative life drove him to experimentation and the reinvention of what art was supposed to look like. The painting Les Demoiselles d’Avignon displays five nude female prostitutes from a brothel on Carrer d 'Avinyó