Cubism is a style of art that was started in the early twentieth century by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. It was an avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture.

In cubist art, the subject is broken up and placed back together in an abstract form, and often depict objects from several viewpoints at once. The surfaces of the different angles overlap and intersect each other at seemingly random places, which takes away the sense of depth.

This idea of having multiple viewpoints inspired modern photomontages, which is the idea of cutting and joining several photos together to make one picture.

In the late ninetieth and early twentieth centuries, Europeans were discovering African and Native American art for the first time. Many of the artists at the time were astounded and inspired by the raw power and simplicity of the foreign artwork.

Cubism was ‘invented’ by Picasso and Braque, who worked on the art until the outbreak of WW2. Louis Vauxcellesm, an art critic at the time, was the first person to use the word cubism after seeing a picture by Braque, which he described as being ‘full of little cubes’.

Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso worked together until the outbreak of WW1, where Braque got injured. After the war, Braque worked on his own and moved away from cubism.

Picasso, Braque and Juan Gris started working on synthetic cubism during 1912 and 1919, which combines different modes and textures of art – oils, fabric, collage etc.

Woman with Guitar by George Braque, 1913

This picture shows different viewpoints of a middle age woman playing a guitar. The disjointedness of the picture gives it a sense of movement, and gives the illusion that the woman is being entranced by the music she is playing.

Guernica by Pablo Picasso

This painting shows a group of farm animals and humans staring at something off the picture. The features of the faces are disjointed – the bull, for example, has it’s ears on the wrong side of it’s head and the eyes are too far apart. I think the photo is about how farming can often cause stress the animals and cause them to be unrecognisable for what they are.