The Cubist movement was highly influential in modern art, forever changing the way we think about art in terms of its purpose and what art should look like. Cubism paved the way for abstract art and allowed artists to move away from extreme naturalism; without it, we would never see art such as Andy Warhol’s Campbell Soup or the work of Jackson Pollock.

For such a significant art movement, one might be surprised to learn that the artists that developed Cubism all lived in Paris and were colleagues, and continued on to be some of the most important artists of the Cubist movement. This includes of course Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, the two most significant artists of the Cubism period, but also Juan Gris, Ferdinand Leger, and Robert Delaunay.

Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque are known for the invention of cubism, and therefore are the two most significant Cubism artists. They first started working in the style of Analytic Cubism, which broke down forms into simpler geometric shapes and then distorted images to the point it created a broken glass panel effect on paintings.

These paintings were often monochromatic as well, as seen in Braque’s Violin and Candlestick. The two then started working in a style called Synthetic Cubism, which was a form of collage. A great example of this style is seen in Picasso’s Still Life with Chair Caning

While Picasso and Braque are known for inventing cubism, Juan Gris is known as the third most important Cubist painter. Picasso and Braque worked in neutral colors, often dark grays, yet Gris introduced the use of much brighter colors in his paintings. He is quite famous for his portrait of Picasso, although it is rumored that Picasso was not quite fond of Gris! Yet Juan Gris’ record sale price was for his Livre, pipe et verres, which sold for 20.8 million in November 2008 at Christie’s, and was the first time Gris’ paintings sold for prices on par with Picasso.

Also quite important in the Cubism movement was Ferdinand Leger, who actually was first trained as an architect. He began working in a very interesting style of Cubism in which he formed most figures with cylindrical shapes, which became known as “Tubism”, a play on the word Cubism. Leger only worked in the “Tubist” style, and did not experiment with collage as Picasso and Braque did. His prior experience as an architectural draftsman influenced his art, which took on mechanical characteristics.

A great example of one of his Tubism paintings is Nudes in the Forest. Just last year, it was announced that one of Leger’s paintings titled Mother and Child went missing from the Wellesley College Davis Museum, and is a current scandal in the art world. It is thought that the painting was accidentally thrown out!

Robert Delaunay also worked in Paris alongside these influential Cubist artists. He mainly worked in other styles such as Neo-Impressionism and Orphism, but was influenced heavily by Cubism and used Cubism at the peak of its invention just prior to 1910. He made significant contributions to the movement, as Delaunay introduced architecture as subject matter into cubism, as seen in his Eiffel Tower paintings. His paintings usually sell in the hundreds of thousands of dollars at top auction houses such as Christie’s and Sotheby’s.

Places to learn more about Cubism

Art history courses from online colleges
Cubism article from Lilith Gallery