cubism

[ kyoo-biz-uhm ]

noun

, (sometimes initial capital letter)

1. a style of painting and sculpture developed in the early 20th century, characterized chiefly by an emphasis on formal structure, the reduction of natural forms to their geometrical equivalents, and the organization of the planes of a represented object independently of representational requirements.

cubism

/ ˈkjuːbɪzəm /

noun

1. often capital a French school of painting, collage, relief, and sculpture initiated in 1907 by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, which amalgamated viewpoints of natural forms into a multifaceted surface of geometrical planes

cubism

1. A movement in modern art that emphasized the geometrical depiction of natural forms ( see geometry ). Pablo Picasso was one of the leading cubists.

Derived Forms

• cuˈbistic, adjective
• ˈcubist, adjectivenoun
• cuˈbistically, adverb

Other Words From

• cubist noun
• cub·istic adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of cubism¹

< French cubisme (1908); cube ¹, -ism

Example Sentences

In his grimy Montmartre apartment, Picasso is doing something similar on canvas: he’s twisted space and time into something he calls cubism.

From Literature

Sherman sees the disjunctions in her new work’s faces almost as an exercise in cubism.

From New York Times

He went on to work with graphic designers influenced by radical and avant-garde art movements, such as futurism, cubism, and surrealism, conveying the modernity of the Underground.

From BBC

The six large pictures in the DC Arts Center’s “Displacement” exhibit combine the fractured imagery of cubism and the kinetic gestures of futurism with the colossal sweep of abstract expressionism.

From Washington Post

In Paris, by contrast, newspapers were “rife with fear that cubism was a direct threat to the country’s identity.”

From Washington Post