50 free Cubism trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This Cubism trivia quiz covers the movement that broke pictures into facets and reassembled them from many viewpoints at once. It begins with the influences, Cézanne's cylinders, spheres and cones and the 1907 retrospective, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon and the brothel it was named after, and the critic who first sneered at Braque's little cubes. Then it follows Picasso and Braque through their roped-together partnership, the dealer Kahnweiler who kept them out of the Salons, the Analytic and Synthetic phases and the oilcloth collage that started modern collage. The other half is the wider movement: Salle 41 at the 1911 Indépendants, the scandal at the Grand Palais, Gleizes and Metzinger's book, Duchamp's censored nude, the Section d'Or, Apollinaire's Orphism, Léger's tubes, Juan Gris, the Armory Show, Cubist sculpture, Le Corbusier's Purism and the only Cubist buildings ever built, in Prague. There are questions on Guernica and Braque's war wound too. Difficulty runs from easy to expert and is shown on every question. Every answer was checked against a reference page and each question carries its citation. Try our Picasso and famous paintings quizzes next.
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Q 01In which city did Cubism begin in the early 20th century?
Paris
Its practitioners worked in Montmartre and Montparnasse and out in the suburb of Puteaux.
Q 02Which two artists pioneered Cubism in partnership?
Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque
Braque later said working with Picasso was "like being roped together on a mountain".
Q 03Whose late works, especially their handling of three-dimensional form, chiefly influenced Cubism?
Paul Cézanne
Retrospectives at the Salon d'Automne in 1904 and after his death in 1907 shook the Paris avant-garde.
Q 04Into which three geometric solids did Cézanne want to simplify natural forms?
Cylinders, spheres and cones
He also broke the painted surface into small facets that suggested binocular vision.
Q 05In which year did Picasso paint Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, often considered the first proto-Cubist work?
1907
Picasso always called it "my brothel"; the poet André Salmon gave it its politer title in 1916.
Q 06The "Avignon" of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon refers to a street in which city?
Barcelona
The five nudes are prostitutes in a brothel on Carrer d'Avinyó, and the painting now hangs at MoMA in New York.
Q 07How many figures appear in Les Demoiselles d'Avignon?
Five
Two on the right wear African-mask-like faces; two in the middle are in an Iberian style.
Q 08In which year was Les Demoiselles d'Avignon first exhibited publicly, when it was deemed immoral?
1916
André Salmon showed it at the Salon d'Antin, nine years after Picasso painted it in the Bateau-Lavoir.
Q 09Which critic wrote in 1908 that Braque reduced everything "to cubes", helping name the movement?
Louis Vauxcelles
He went on to write of "bizarreries cubiques" in Gil Blas in 1909, and had already coined "Fauves".
Q 10Which artist reportedly told Vauxcelles that Braque had sent "a painting made of little cubes"?
Henri Matisse
The critic Charles Morice relayed the remark, and the phrase stuck.
Q 11Braque's 1908 Cubist landscapes were painted at which village near Marseille?
L'Estaque
Its viaduct inspired three paintings marked by simplified form and dismantled perspective.
Q 12Which writer called Picasso's 1909 Horta de Ebro landscapes the first Cubist paintings?
Gertrude Stein
Her Paris salon and collection made her one of Picasso's earliest champions.
Q 13A Spanish painter of the movement later coined the term for its first phase, roughly 1910–1912. What is it called?
Analytic Cubism
Douglas Cooper's rival scheme divided the movement into Early, High and Late Cubism.
Q 21Cubist works at the 1912 Salon d'Automne caused a political scandal by being shown in which government building?
The Grand Palais
The politician Jean Pierre Philippe Lampué's indignation made the front page of Le Journal.
Q 22Which Duchamp painting was censored from the 1912 Salon des Indépendants by his own brothers?
Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2
He never forgave them, though the work was shown at the Section d'Or that October and the 1913 Armory Show.
Q 23Which 1913 New York exhibition introduced astonished Americans to the European avant-garde?
The Armory Show
Q 14Which phase, from about 1912 to 1914, featured simpler shapes, brighter colours and newspaper print?
Synthetic Cubism
It stayed vital until around 1919, when Surrealism began to take over.
Q 15Which art dealer guaranteed Braque, Picasso and Gris an annual income for exclusive rights to their work?
Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler
He sold only to a small circle of connoisseurs, letting his artists experiment in relative privacy.
Q 16What was the room hosting the first Cubist group show at the 1911 Salon des Indépendants called?
Salle 41
Metzinger, Gleizes, Léger, Delaunay and Le Fauconnier showed there; Picasso and Braque did not.
Q 17Which two Cubists were notably absent from the 1911 Salle 41 exhibition?
Picasso and Braque
They exhibited only through Kahnweiler, so the Salon Cubists were the ones the public first saw.
Q 18Which Paris landmark did Robert Delaunay depict in a famous Cubist series shown in 1911?
The Eiffel Tower
He went on to the Simultaneous Windows and Circular Forms series that pushed towards pure abstraction.
Q 19Which work is credited as the first Cubist collage, made by Picasso in May 1912?
Still Life with Chair Caning
It combined oil paint with commercially printed oilcloth on canvas.
Q 20Which technique of gluing pieces of paper such as newspaper and wallpaper did Braque invent?
Papier collé
He also preceded Picasso in making Cubist cardboard sculptures.
Gelett Burgess had already written about "The Wild Men of Paris" in 1910.
Q 24Which Catalan gallery presented the first declared group exhibition of Cubism worldwide in 1912?
Galeries Dalmau
Metzinger, Gleizes, Gris, Marie Laurencin and Duchamp took part.
Q 25Which two painters wrote Du "Cubisme", the first major treatise on the movement, in 1912?
Jean Metzinger and Albert Gleizes
It was written amid public anger over Cubist works being shown in the government-owned Grand Palais.
Q 26Which poet wrote Les Peintres Cubistes (1913)?
Guillaume Apollinaire
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.
Q 27By what other name is the Cubist collective the Section d'Or known?
The Puteaux Group
Their October 1912 salon was the largest public showing of Cubist works before the First World War.
Q 28What does "Section d'Or" mean in English?
Golden ratio
The name linked Cubism to a tradition, the golden ratio, that had fascinated Western thinkers for 2,400 years.
Q 29Which three brothers formed the core of the Section d'Or?
Jacques Villon, Raymond Duchamp-Villon and Marcel Duchamp
They met at Puteaux, just outside Paris, from late 1911.
Q 30Which colourful abstract offshoot of Cubism was pioneered by Kupka and the Delaunays?
Orphism
It relaunched colour during Cubism's monochrome phase and bridged the way to abstract art.