Cubism

Cubism, art movement that began c. 1907, Paris, as an intellectual response to the emotional and sensual art of previous times, primarily as represented in painting. In the analytic period (1907–12) fragmented 3-dimensional subjects were explored from varying points of view simultaneously, art that came to be called conceptual realism because it portrayed its object as perceived by the mind, not the eye. In the synthetic phase (1913 through the 1920s) the cubists used brighter colors and fewer forms, and added the texture and construction of collage (for a trompe l'oeil effect) in their creations. Important figures in the analytic period were Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Other major cubists include Juan Gris, Fernand Legér, and Jean Metzinger.