50 Fun Facts About Cubism

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

Its practitioners worked in Montmartre and Montparnasse and out in the suburb of Puteaux.

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?

Retrospectives at the Salon d'Automne in 1904 and after his death in 1907 shook the Paris avant-garde.

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

He also broke the painted surface into small facets that suggested binocular vision.

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

Picasso always called it "my brothel"; the poet André Salmon gave it its politer title in 1916.

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?

Two on the right wear African-mask-like faces; two in the middle are in an Iberian style.

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

André Salmon showed it at the Salon d'Antin, nine years after Picasso painted it in the Bateau-Lavoir.

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

He went on to write of "bizarreries cubiques" in Gil Blas in 1909, and had already coined "Fauves".

Which artist reportedly told Vauxcelles that Braque had sent "a painting made of 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?

Its viaduct inspired three paintings marked by simplified form and dismantled perspective.

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

Her Paris salon and collection made her one of Picasso's earliest champions.

A Spanish painter of the movement later coined the term for its first phase, roughly 1910–1912. What is it called?

Douglas Cooper's rival scheme divided the movement into Early, High and Late Cubism.

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

It stayed vital until around 1919, when Surrealism began to take over.

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

He sold only to a small circle of connoisseurs, letting his artists experiment in relative privacy.

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

Metzinger, Gleizes, Léger, Delaunay and Le Fauconnier showed there; Picasso and Braque did not.

Which two Cubists were notably absent from the 1911 Salle 41 exhibition?

They exhibited only through Kahnweiler, so the Salon Cubists were the ones the public first saw.

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

He went on to the Simultaneous Windows and Circular Forms series that pushed towards pure abstraction.

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

It combined oil paint with commercially printed oilcloth on canvas.

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

He also preceded Picasso in making Cubist cardboard sculptures.

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

The politician Jean Pierre Philippe Lampué's indignation made the front page of Le Journal.

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

He never forgave them, though the work was shown at the Section d'Or that October and the 1913 Armory Show.

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

Gelett Burgess had already written about "The Wild Men of Paris" in 1910.

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

Metzinger, Gleizes, Gris, Marie Laurencin and Duchamp took part.

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

It was written amid public anger over Cubist works being shown in the government-owned Grand Palais.

Which poet wrote Les Peintres Cubistes (1913)?

He first used the word Orphism in a speech at the Salon de la Section d'Or in 1912, referring to Kupka's pure painting.

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

Their October 1912 salon was the largest public showing of Cubist works before the First World War.

What does "Section d'Or" mean in English?

The name linked Cubism to a tradition, the golden ratio, that had fascinated Western thinkers for 2,400 years.

Which three brothers formed the core of the Section d'Or?

They met at Puteaux, just outside Paris, from late 1911.

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

It relaunched colour during Cubism's monochrome phase and bridged the way to abstract art.

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

He lived at the Bateau-Lavoir alongside Picasso from 1909 to 1911.

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?

His state funeral was later held in the same building's Cour Carrée.

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

Le Corbusier hoped to translate his own version of Cubism into architecture.

In which historic region were the only original Cubist buildings ever designed?

Cubist architecture flourished mostly between 1910 and 1914, above all in Prague.

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

The Grand Café Orient sits inside it, and Emil Králíček's Cubist streetlamp still stands near Wenceslas Square.

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

From then on Cubism developed in parallel with architects such as Peter Behrens and Walter Gropius.

Which of these movements developed in response to Cubism?

Suprematism, Dada, Constructivism, De Stijl and Art Deco also grew out of the reaction to Cubism.

Which critic attacked Kahnweiler's claim that Cubist space supported the flatness of the canvas?

Berger, by contrast, described the diagram as Cubism's metaphorical model.

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

Cubist sculptors including Lipchitz and Laurens decorated his Neuilly studio house in 1927.

What are the only colours in Picasso's Guernica?

The canvas is 3.49 metres tall and 7.76 metres across and now hangs in the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid.

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

Picasso changed his subject after hearing of the bombing of the Basque town on 26 April 1937.

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

Kupka's abstract Amorpha and Picabia's La Source were shown at the same scandal-ridden salon.

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

Early Futurist paintings, meanwhile, shared Cubism's multiple perspective and simultaneity.

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

The wartime shift toward large overlapping planes was tied to a broader 'return to order' in French culture.

Which Mexican painter was thrown out of Picasso's studio after accusing him of copying his Cubist work?

Rivera had befriended Picasso in Paris in 1914 and gave Cubism his own Mexican concerns before the friendship ended.

Who is recognised as the first American Cubist painter?

He studied in Paris and knew Picasso directly; Davis, Maurer and Dawson were fellow early adopters back in the United States.

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

Braque followed with four ballets of his own from 1924, starting with Diaghilev's Les Fâcheux.

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

He picked up the artists stranded when Kahnweiler went into exile, and the shows helped rebut Vauxcelles' claim that Cubism was dead.