cubism

[ kyoo-biz-uhm ]

noun(sometimes initial capital letter)Fine Arts.
  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.

Origin of cubism

1
<French cubisme (1908); see cube1, -ism

Other words from cubism

  • cubist, noun
  • cub·is·tic, adjective

Words Nearby cubism

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use cubism in a sentence

  • It is an essentially beautiful and satisfying contribution to modern painting, this nacreous cubism of Marie Laurencin.

    Adventures in the Arts | Marsden Hartley
  • It was scarce two years since we first heard of "cubism" when the "Futurists" were calling the "Cubists" reactionary.

    Artist and Public | Kenyon Cox
  • Their designs include not only the traditional but also elements of modern art styles, such as cubism and abstraction.

    Area Handbook for Romania | Eugene K. Keefe, Donald W. Bernier, Lyle E. Brenneman, William Giloane, James M. Moore, and Neda A. Walpole
  • cubism is nothing but the extreme manifestation of this passion for order, for the complete organization of forms and colours.

    Since Czanne | Clive Bell
  • With cubism conscious stheticism holds the field, for the Cubist theory is, in the main, sthetic.

    Since Czanne | Clive Bell

British Dictionary definitions for cubism

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

Derived forms of cubism

  • cubist, adjective, noun
  • cubistic, adjective
  • cubistically, adverb

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Cultural definitions for cubism

cubism

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

The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.