source:http://emptyeasel.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/10/girlwithamandolinfannytellierbypablopicasso.jpg To understand where the term cubism comes from, we have to digress on the rivalry that existed between Picasso and Matisse. The latter's Blue Nude painting had caused a public scandal at the Salons des Indépendent (annual Paris art show of contemporary French art) and had caused art critic Louis Vauxcelles to refer to Matisse and his followers as Les Fauves (the wild animals), which led to Fauvism and made Matisse's reputation as the leading avant-garde artist, something he was very fond of. Matisse's reputation had grown to the point that he had been allowed to become one of the Salon's jury members. When Picasso had produced his Demoiselles, many young artists that had previously followed Matisse, began to follow Picasso is his radical new style of painting. One of the converts was Georges Braque and when he submitted a series of paintings to the Salon, Matisse, who was infuriated by Braque's defection, was instrumental in the Salon's rejection of all of Braques' works. When explaining to Vauxcelles (him again), Matisse made a drawing after one of Braque's landscapes, to show how they were made out of 'little cubes' and from there on "cubism" was a no-brainer for Vauxcelles. This however, had little to do with the technique of faceting that Braque and Picasso went on to develop. Braque's paintings were just a prelude to a very different style, but the term cubism would stick.
source:http://www.artquotes.net/masters/picasso/picasso_lesdemoiselles1907.jpg Noteworthy is the work of Piet Mondrian, who linearized cubism in his 1912 "Apple Tree" painting, a process which ultimately led to the first really non-figurative paintings (or pure abstract art), from 1914 on. An important difference between Picasso and the cubist Mondrian was that Picasso never really gave up the third dimension. He played with dimensions, flirted with removing the third, but never became a pure abstract painter. So deeply his figurative upbringing was engrained (he was an artistic prodigy and well-rounded figurative painter at 15), that one of the main creators of abstract art never made it to this development's ultimate consequence: pure abstract art. In that sense Picasso wasn't the radical and revolutionary that, during his cubist period he appeared to become; his cubist period was followed (leaving his cubist converts bewildered) by his neo-classicism, a return to tradition. From there on his recognition and wealth grew and his role as a bringer of fundamental change in the art of painting was over.
cubism origin of the term:
To understand where the term cubism comes from, we have to digress on the rivalry that existed between Picasso and Matisse. The latter's Blue Nude painting had caused a public scandal at the Salons des Indépendent (annual Paris art show of contemporary French art) and had caused art critic Louis Vauxcelles to refer to Matisse and his followers as Les Fauves (the wild animals), which led to Fauvism and made Matisse's reputation as the leading avant-garde artist, something he was very fond of. Matisse's reputation had grown to the point that he had been allowed to become one of the Salon's jury members.
When Picasso had produced his Demoiselles, many young artists that had previously followed Matisse, began to follow Picasso is his radical new style of painting. One of the converts was Georges Braque and when he submitted a series of paintings to the Salon, Matisse, who was infuriated by Braque's defection, was instrumental in the Salon's rejection of all of Braques' works. When explaining to Vauxcelles (him again), Matisse made a drawing after one of Braque's landscapes, to show how they were made out of 'little cubes' and from there on "cubism" was a no-brainer for Vauxcelles. This however, had little to do with the technique of faceting that Braque and Picasso went on to develop. Braque's paintings were just a prelude to a very different style, but the term cubism would stick.
Noteworthy is the work of Piet Mondrian, who linearized cubism in his 1912 "Apple Tree" painting, a process which ultimately led to the first really non-figurative paintings (or pure abstract art), from 1914 on. An important difference between Picasso and the cubist Mondrian was that Picasso never really gave up the third dimension. He played with dimensions, flirted with removing the third, but never became a pure abstract painter. So deeply his figurative upbringing was engrained (he was an artistic prodigy and well-rounded figurative painter at 15), that one of the main creators of abstract art never made it to this development's ultimate consequence: pure abstract art. In that sense Picasso wasn't the radical and revolutionary that, during his cubist period he appeared to become; his cubist period was followed (leaving his cubist converts bewildered) by his neo-classicism, a return to tradition. From there on his recognition and wealth grew and his role as a bringer of fundamental change in the art of painting was over.