47 Fun Facts About Cubism

In which city did Cubism begin in the early 20th century?

Cubism began in Paris in the years before the First World War; its painters worked in studios in Montmartre and Montparnasse.

Which two artists pioneered Cubism in partnership?

Braque later said working with Picasso was "like being roped together on a mountain".

Whose late works, especially their handling of three-dimensional form, chiefly influenced Cubism?

Paul Cézanne's late landscapes and bathers, shown in a Salon d'Automne retrospective the year after his death, taught the young Cubists to build form from shifting planes.

Into which three geometric solids did Cézanne want to simplify natural forms?

Cylinders, spheres and cones were the solids he named in a 1904 letter to Émile Bernard, advising that nature be treated through them; the Cubists took it as a manifesto.

In which year did Picasso paint Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, often considered the first proto-Cubist work?

Picasso painted Les Demoiselles d'Avignon in 1907 in his Bateau-Lavoir studio; he called it 'my brothel', and the poet André Salmon later gave it the politer title.

The "Avignon" of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon refers to a street in which city?

The five nudes are prostitutes in a brothel on Carrer d'Avinyó, and the painting now hangs at MoMA in New York.

How many figures appear in Les Demoiselles d'Avignon?

Five nude women fill the canvas; the two on the right have African-mask-like faces, while the two in the middle reflect Iberian sculpture.

In which year was Les Demoiselles d'Avignon first exhibited publicly, when it was deemed immoral?

André Salmon first showed it publicly at his Salon d'Antin exhibition in July 1916, where visitors denounced the painting as immoral.

Which critic wrote in 1908 that Braque reduced everything "to cubes", helping name the movement?

Louis Vauxcelles, reviewing Braque's November 1908 show in Gil Blas, wrote that he reduced everything to cubes; he had coined 'Fauves' in 1905 and wrote of 'bizarreries cubiques' in 1909.

Which artist reportedly described Braque's 1908 paintings to a critic as made of 'little cubes'?

Henri Matisse, on the 1908 Salon d'Automne jury, reportedly dismissed Braque's landscapes as 'little cubes'; the critic Charles Morice relayed the remark and the phrase stuck.

Braque's 1908 Cubist landscapes were painted at which village near Marseille?

L'Estaque, a fishing village on the Bay of Marseille, gave Braque the simplified houses and viaduct of his 1908 landscapes, the works a critic mocked as cubes.

Which writer called Picasso's 1909 Horta de Ebro landscapes the first Cubist paintings?

Gertrude Stein, an early collector of Picasso, wrote in her 1933 Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas that his Horta de Ebro landscapes were the first Cubist pictures.

What is the usual name for Cubism's first phase, roughly 1910 to 1912?

Analytic Cubism, roughly 1910–12, broke objects into faceted planes in near-monochrome browns and greys; the later phase reassembled them with flat shapes and pasted paper.

Which phase, from about 1912 to 1914, featured simpler shapes, brighter colours and newspaper print?

Synthetic Cubism, from about 1912, built images up from flat coloured shapes and pasted papers such as newsprint, rather than dissecting objects into facets.

Which art dealer guaranteed Braque, Picasso and Gris an annual income for exclusive rights to their work?

Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler signed exclusive contracts with the painters from 1912 and sold only to a small circle of collectors, letting them experiment in relative privacy.

What was the room hosting the first Cubist group show at the 1911 Salon des Indépendants called?

Salle 41 at the 1911 Salon des Indépendants was the room where the Salon Cubists, including Léger, Delaunay and Le Fauconnier, first showed together as a group.

Which Paris landmark did Robert Delaunay depict in a famous Cubist series shown in 1911?

The Eiffel Tower was Robert Delaunay's obsessive subject from 1909; he fractured it into tilting red fragments, and one version hung at the 1911 Salon des Indépendants.

Which work is credited as the first Cubist collage, made by Picasso in May 1912?

Still Life with Chair Caning pastes a piece of oilcloth printed with a chair-caning pattern onto an oval canvas framed with rope, the first Cubist collage.

Which technique of gluing pieces of paper such as newspaper and wallpaper did Braque invent?

Papier collé, which Braque began in September 1912 with Fruit Dish and Glass, pastes cut paper such as imitation wood-grain wallpaper directly onto the drawing.

Cubist works at the 1912 Salon d'Automne caused a political scandal by being shown in which government building?

The Grand Palais, a state-owned hall, hosted the 1912 Salon d'Automne; councillor Jean Pierre Philippe Lampué's protest at public money housing Cubists reached the Chamber of Deputies.

Which Duchamp painting was censored from the 1912 Salon des Indépendants by his own brothers?

Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 was withdrawn after the hanging committee, speaking through his brothers, objected to its title and subject; it was shown that October at the Section d'Or.

Which 1913 New York exhibition introduced astonished Americans to the European avant-garde?

The Armory Show, held at the 69th Regiment Armory in February–March 1913, brought over a thousand European and American modern works before a scandalised New York public.

Which Catalan gallery presented the first declared group exhibition of Cubism worldwide in 1912?

Galeries Dalmau, run by the dealer Josep Dalmau, staged the Exposició d'Art Cubista from 20 April to 10 May 1912, the first group show anywhere billed as Cubist.

Which two painters wrote Du "Cubisme", the first major treatise on the movement, in 1912?

Jean Metzinger and Albert Gleizes published Du Cubisme with Eugène Figuière in late 1912, the first book-length theory of the movement, soon translated into English and Russian.

Which poet wrote Les Peintres Cubistes (1913)?

Guillaume Apollinaire, the poet and champion of the avant-garde, published Les Peintres Cubistes: Méditations esthétiques in March 1913, grouping the painters into four Cubist tendencies.

By what other name is the Cubist collective the Section d'Or known?

The Puteaux Group took its name from the suburb west of the capital where its members gathered on Sundays; their October 1912 Salon de la Section d'Or was the largest Cubist show before 1914.

Which Section d'Or exhibitor later became a leading figure of New York Dada?

Francis Picabia showed with the Section d'Or in 1912, then from 1913 in New York worked with Alfred Stieglitz's 291 circle and later edited the Dada review 391.

Which gallery hosted the Salon de la Section d'Or in October 1912?

Galerie La Boétie, at 64 bis rue La Boétie, hosted the Salon de la Section d'Or from 10 to 30 October 1912, with more than 200 works by some thirty artists.

Which colourful abstract offshoot of Cubism was pioneered by Kupka and the Delaunays?

Orphism, a term a poet-critic coined in 1912 after the mythical singer Orpheus, relaunched colour during Cubism's monochrome phase and led Kupka and the Delaunays towards pure abstraction.

Which Spanish Cubist, born José Victoriano González-Pérez in Madrid, took his adopted name in 1905?

Juan Gris moved from Madrid to the Bateau-Lavoir studios in 1906, earned a living as an illustrator, and showed his first Cubist canvases at the 1912 Salon des Indépendants.

Which Cubist was born in Argenteuil in 1882 and trained as a house painter and decorator like his father?

He grew up in Le Havre and was allied with Fauvism from 1905 before turning to Cubism.

What happened to Braque at the Battle of Carency in May 1915?

He was trepanned and did not resume painting until late 1916.

For which museum did Braque paint the ceiling work The Birds in 1952–53?

The Louvre commissioned Braque to paint The Birds on the ceiling of its Salle Henri II in 1952–53; a decade later André Malraux delivered his funeral oration in the museum's Cour Carrée.

Which movement, launched by Ozenfant and Le Corbusier's 1918 Après le cubisme, followed Cubism?

Purism, set out in Après le cubisme, rejected what Ozenfant and Le Corbusier saw as Cubism's decorative drift in favour of clean, machine-like forms and everyday objects.

Which 1912 Prague building by Josef Gočár houses the world's only Cubist café?

The House of the Black Madonna, finished in 1912 on Celetná Street, holds the Grand Café Orient on its first floor; the name comes from a baroque statue on its corner.

Which 1912 project by Duchamp-Villon and André Mare linked Cubism to modern architecture?

La Maison Cubiste, shown at the 1912 Salon d'Automne, paired Raymond Duchamp-Villon's faceted plaster façade with André Mare's furnished rooms hung with paintings by the Salon Cubists.

Which of these movements developed in response to Cubism?

Futurism's painters, led by Umberto Boccioni, adopted Cubist fragmentation after seeing the movement first-hand in late 1911 and turned it to depicting speed and motion.

Which fashion designer and collector bought Les Demoiselles d'Avignon directly from Picasso's studio?

Jacques Doucet, the couturier turned collector, bought the picture in 1924 on André Breton's urging, for 25,000 francs, and hung it on the staircase of his Neuilly studio house.

What are the only colours in Picasso's Guernica?

Grey, black and white are the only tones Picasso used, giving the 3.49 by 7.76 metre canvas the starkness of newsprint photographs of the bombing; it hangs in Madrid's Reina Sofía.

For which event was Guernica commissioned by the Spanish Republican government?

The 1937 Paris International Exposition's Spanish Pavilion commissioned the mural in January; Picasso settled on his subject after the bombing of the Basque town on 26 April 1937.

Which Cubist sculptor showed Deux Femmes, a work now lost, at the 1912 Salon d'Automne?

Joseph Csaky, born in Szeged in 1888, was among the first sculptors to work in a Cubist idiom; his plaster Deux Femmes was shown in 1912 and is known only from photographs.

Which Russian movement was influenced by Picasso's sculptures built from separate elements?

Constructivism grew after Vladimir Tatlin visited Picasso's studio in 1914 and saw his guitars assembled from cardboard, sheet metal and wire; his counter-reliefs followed.

Which critic coined the term 'Crystal Cubism' for the tightened, orderly style of 1917-1920?

Maurice Raynal, a critic close to the painters, used the phrase to describe the flat, interlocking planes of 1917–20, a tightening tied to the wider French 'return to order'.

Which Mexican painter accused Picasso of copying foliage from his 1915 Cubist Zapatista Landscape?

Diego Rivera, a friend of Picasso from 1914, protested in 1915–16 that Picasso had borrowed the leafy motif of his Zapatista Landscape, and the friendship ended.

Who is recognised as the first American Cubist painter?

Max Weber, who studied in France from 1905 to 1908 and met Picasso there, was painting faceted Cubist figures in New York by 1910.

For which 1917 Diaghilev ballet did Picasso design the first Cubist sets and costumes?

Parade, with a scenario by Jean Cocteau and music by Erik Satie, opened in May 1917 with Picasso's Cubist curtain, sets and towering 'Manager' costumes.

Which dealer's Galerie de l'Effort Moderne staged a run of Cubist shows in Paris in 1918?

Léonce Rosenberg took on the Cubists stranded when their German dealer fled into exile in 1914, and his 1918–19 series of one-man shows answered critics who declared Cubism dead.