Cubism Prints Collection

Print Collections > Cubism

Cubism is one of the most influential and original artistic movements of the 20th century, that radically challenged Western conceptions of pictorial representation.

The term Cubism was coined in 1908 by the French art critic Louis Vauxcelles when he described some of Georges Braque’s paintings as ‘geometric schemas and cubes’. The early Cubist works of Picasso and Braque challenged ideas of perspective and illusionism by breaking up the painting’s surface into a series of planes, signs and shifting viewpoints. Volume was rendered in flat planes instead of using tonal modelling, while three-dimensionality was indicated by showing multiple viewpoints simultaneously.

The impact of Cubism reverberated throughout Europe and abroad, inspiring the Russian Avant-Garde, the Italian Futurist and the British Vorticism artistic movements among others, opening the door for radical artistic freedom and experimentation that continues today.