Cubism The key role in the creation of cubism is Picasso’s interest in non-Western sculpture specifically Afro sculpture. Picasso’s proto-cubist works, such as Les Demoiselles D’Avinion (1907) displayed his interest in both African art and ancient Iberian art and architecture. Picasso and Braque developed cubism between 1907 and 1914, creating the most influential style of the modern period. In cubism, the flat, two-dimensional surface of the picture plane is emphasized, and traditional perspective, modeling and chiaroscuro (contrast of light and dark) are rejected. In its first phase, called Analytical Cubism, artists were concerned with breaking down and analyzing form. The aim of Cubism is to distil the depiction of form by showing several sides of the object simultaneously. This resulted in the radical fragmentation of objects into cube-like elements. To emphasize further the abstract nature of the composition, the use of monochrome was favoured.
Its second phase, generally called Synthetic Cubism, grew out of experiments with collage. Materials such as wood, newspaper, photographs or feathers were pasted on to the picture in combination with painted surfaces. Although shapes remained fragmented and flat, colour played a strong role in synthetic cubism, and the works are more decorative. Other leading artists of Cubism, who created personal modifications of it, were Leger, and Duchamp. Several Italian artists notably Severini, and Balla worked in the cubist style but called their movement Futurism; among other things, they were concerned with expressing motion in art through the repetition of lines and images.
Cubism was also crucial to the development of non- figurative representation, or abstract art. In
