Picasso and Braque revolutionized painting with their new approach to representation.
c. 1907 - 1939
videos + essays
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Pablo Picasso and the new language of Cubism
Picasso was a technically skilled draftsman—so why did he choose to take his forms apart?
Pablo Picasso, The Reservoir, Horta de Ebro
Ostensibly a landscape, this painting has little to do with nature.
Pablo Picasso, Guitar
Picasso represents a guitar in three dimensions, but he doesn’t actually make one.
Georges Braque, Le Viaduc à L’Estaque, (The Viaduct at L’Estaque)
An homage to Cézanne, but also a reaction to having seen Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, Braque is exploring.
Pablo Picasso, Guernica
Paintings of this size had historically exalted war, but this one suggests that war is anything but heroic.
Pablo Picasso, Still Life with Chair Caning
Introducing mechanically reproduced images here undermines Picasso’s vocation as a painter—so why does he do it?
Pablo Picasso, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
Picasso loved the magic of illusionism—but here, he shatters it.
Inventing Cubism
Braque hated Picasso’s Demoiselles when he saw it. But he couldn’t get it out of his head… or off of his canvas.
Pablo Picasso, Portrait of Gertrude Stein
Picasso began his love affair with Gertrude Stein’s bank account when he learned of her support for Matisse.
Picasso’s Early Work
For Picasso, the road to fame started young… but before he could get too far, he had to unlearn a lot about art.