CUBISM: Developed by Pablo Picasso and George

Braques.
First style of abstract art which evolved at the beginning of the 20th century.
Characteristics:
1. Challenged conventional forms of representation such as perspective,
which had been a rule since Renaissance.
2. In the four decades 1870-1910, western society witnessed more
technological progress than in the previous four centuries.
3. The problem for the artists at this time was how to reflect the modernity of
the era using the tired and old traditions that had served art for the last four
centuries. So they needed a more radical approach a new way of seeing
that expanded the possibilities of art in the same way that technology was
extending the boundaries.
4. Created new pictorial perspective.
5. Involved complex practices of breaking up forms, deconstructing and
reconstructing, and reorganizing the form.
6. Saw still-life and portraiture as popular subjects.
7. Favored the use of black and white and sacrificed color to form.

ARTISTS & PAINTINGS:

1. Les Demoiselles DAvignon: (The Ladies of Avignon)
The Scene was originally taken from a brothel in Barcelonas district of
Avignon Street, and shows a sailor choosing his women in a brothel.
His new approach to painting was:
The Shallow Space
The Breaking up of Forms
The unusual abstract contortions of the figures
2. Pablo Picassos The Seated Nude 1910-11.
i. Color largely sacrificed to form. Thin paintwork and broken hatched
brushwork.
ii. It looks like a reflection in a shattered mirror.
iii. Yellow ochre surfaces are identified as upwards facing, while greyer tones
are moving downwards.

The body and surrounding area are developed with fragmented shapes that
float on the surface of the picture plain. He attempts to show the pictures
from all angles, but on one plain.