Cubism

The Father of Cubism:  Paul Cezanne.

The Cubist painters saw two key elements in Cézanne’s late work which influenced them the most.

• Geometry.  Representing nature with geometric shapes is central to the early development of Cubism.
• Perspective. In many paintings by Cézanne, it looks as if each object has its own independent space with its own point of view, which goes against the traditional single-point-of-view linear perspective introduced in the Renaissance.

Cubists followed Cézanne in breaking the traditional rules of perspective, and then went further by introducing multiple views of the same subject from different perspectives at the same time, called Analytical Cubism.  The development of Cubism was also inspired by other art forms, such as African art, but Cézanne played a key role.  His work was so influential that he has not only been called a father of Cubism, but also a father of modern art itself.

Famous Cubism artists:  Pablo Picasso & Georges Braque worked very closely together to take Cezanne's style and develop it further.

The artwork on the left is Pablo Picasso Ma Jolie, 1911-12; 

the artwork on the right is Georges Braque The Portuguese, 1911-12

“Cubism has a strong relationship with the process of human vision.  Our eyes shift and scan a subject; our minds combine these fragments into whole." "It's a new approach to handling space and expressing human emotions" (Meggs).

A direct application of Cubism to graphic design was made by Austin Cooper in England who designed 3 collage inspired posters using lively movement, shifting planes, sharp angles, and bold geometric shapes and colors.

Austin Cooper Posters for London Underground, 1924

Cubism changed graphic design, pushing it towards geometric abstraction and pictorial space (Meggs).