The Cubist art movement began in Paris around 1907 with Picasso’s ground breaking painting Demoiselles D'Avignon and the works of Georges Braque.
They rebelled against established ways of painting and represented three-dimensional subjects from several different points of view simultaneously so they became fragmented and redefined. Other major exponents of Cubism included Robert Delaunay, Francis Picabia, Jean Metzinger, Marcel Duchamp and Fernand Leger.
Cubism can bee seen evolving in the late work of Cézanne in which he painted sill lives from slightly different points of view. Picasso and many artists of the time were also influenced by African tribal masks which are highly stylised, but nevertheless present a vivid human image. The object in these paintings became increasingly fragmented and the paintings themselves became increasingly abstract.
Cubism was the starting point for much abstract art including Constructivism and Neo-Plasticism. It also however, opened up almost infinite new possibilities for the treatment of reality in art, including the used of everyday objects in paintings and sculpture.
