Cubist Art
Inspired by the nontraditional ways Postimpressionists like Paul Cézanne and Georges Seurat depicted the world, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque pioneered an even more abstract style in which reality was fragmented into flat, geometric forms. Cubism majorly influenced 20th-century Western art as it radically broke with the adherence to composition and linear perspectives that dated back to the Renaissance. Its watershed moments are considered Picasso’s 1907 Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, in which nude figures are fractured into angular shapes, and Georges Braque’s 1908 painting show, which prompted a critic to describe his visual reductions as “cubes.”
Although Cubism was a revolutionary art movement for European culture, it was informed by African masks and other tribal art. Its artists, which included Fernand Léger, Alexander Archipenko, Marcel Duchamp, Juan Gris and Jean Metzinger, experimented with compressing space and playing with the tension between solid and void forms in their work. While their subjects were often conventional, such as still lifes, nudes and landscapes, they were distorted without any illusion of realism.
Cubist art evolved through different distinct phases. In Analytic Cubism, from 1908 to 1912, figures or objects were “analyzed” into pieces that were reassembled in paintings and sculptures, as if presenting the same subject matter from many perspectives at once. The palette was usually monochromatic and muted, giving attention to the overlapping planes. Synthetic Cubism, dating from 1912 to 1914, moved to brighter colors and a further flattening of images. This unmooring from formal ideas of art would shape numerous styles that followed, from Dada to Surrealism.
Find a collection of authentic Cubist paintings, prints and multiples, sculptures and more art on 1stDibs.
21st Century and Contemporary Cubist Art
Plexiglass
1970s Cubist Art
Ink, Watercolor
2010s Cubist Art
Oil
20th Century Cubist Art
Oil
1940s Cubist Art
Paper, Pastel
1950s Cubist Art
Etching
20th Century Cubist Art
Oil, Board
1980s Cubist Art
Lithograph
1960s Cubist Art
Canvas, Oil
1970s Cubist Art
Lithograph
1960s Cubist Art
Archival Ink, Oil
1970s Cubist Art
Oil
1980s Cubist Art
Oil, Canvas
20th Century Cubist Art
Other Medium
21st Century and Contemporary Cubist Art
Oil
20th Century Cubist Art
Pencil, Paper
20th Century Cubist Art
Woodcut
Late 20th Century Cubist Art
Pastel
Mid-19th Century Cubist Art
Canvas, Oil
2010s Cubist Art
Oil
20th Century Cubist Art
Pastel
1960s Cubist Art
Oil
1950s Cubist Art
Lithograph
1970s Cubist Art
Rice Paper, Linocut
1970s Cubist Art
Lithograph
21st Century and Contemporary Cubist Art
Oil
2010s Cubist Art
Canvas, Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Cubist Art
Wood, Acrylic
21st Century and Contemporary Cubist Art
Oil
1930s Cubist Art
Etching, Aquatint, Paper, Engraving
Mid-20th Century Cubist Art
Canvas, Oil
Mid-20th Century Cubist Art
Oil
2010s Cubist Art
Acrylic
Mid-20th Century Cubist Art
Linocut
1960s Cubist Art
Lithograph
20th Century Cubist Art
Mixed Media
1930s Cubist Art
Pastel
1980s Cubist Art
Etching, Paper
1930s Cubist Art
Canvas, Oil
1960s Cubist Art
Paper, Engraving
2010s Cubist Art
Archival Paper, Photographic Paper, Black and White, Color, Archival Pig...
21st Century and Contemporary Cubist Art
Canvas, Acrylic
Late 20th Century Cubist Art
Oil
1950s Cubist Art
Paper, Drypoint
Early 2000s Cubist Art
Canvas, Mixed Media
Early 2000s Cubist Art
Canvas, Oil
Early 20th Century Cubist Art
Paper, Pencil
2010s Cubist Art
Oil
1980s Cubist Art
Canvas, Mixed Media
2010s Cubist Art
Acrylic, Foam Board
1950s Cubist Art
Lithograph, Paper
20th Century Cubist Art
Canvas, Oil
1980s Cubist Art
Canvas, Oil
20th Century Cubist Art
Paper, Watercolor
1960s Cubist Art
Oil
20th Century Cubist Art
Canvas, Oil
20th Century Cubist Art
Canvas, Oil
1930s Cubist Art
Ink