As a radical school of modern art, cubism influenced later traditions like absurdism, surrealism and dadaism.
One of the most distinctive and influential art styles in the 20th century is cubism, which rejected its realistic forebears to create abstract, even bizarre depictions of the world that are all the more evocative for their strangeness. At its core, cubism is all about perspective --- allowing the viewer to perceive the same thing from multiple angles and multiple times all at once.
History
Cubism emerged in the dawning years of the 20th century, beginning in around 1907; it acquired its name from the derisive critical response of the painter Henri Matisse --- who, ironically, was also seen as a radical figure in the art world. The first phase of the cubist style, known as "analytical cubism," ended around 1912. By this point, it was a mature artistic style, and its second phase, "synthetic cubism," persisted into the 1920s.
Characteristics
Cubism represented a break from earlier schools of art that stressed highly realistic depictions of the world. It presented images that were two-dimensional, but overlaid multiple viewpoints at the same time. Cubist art was abstract; rather than simply copying the natural world onto canvas; cubist painters created completely synthetic --- and highly radical --- images that emphasized a blend of temporal and physical perspectives. This placed emphasis on overlapping perspectives combined with a move away from the use of color. Cubist paintings have a relative dearth of colors, and may at times appear almost monochromatic.
Legacy
Cubism was, in its time, highly avant-garde, and the artists that followed in its wake were similarly determined to bend perceptions of what art should look like --- and even what art was. Painters who started out in the cubist school, like Marcel Duchamp, would go on to work in the surrealist and dadaist movements embodied by people like Rene Magritte. These philosophical art styles moved beyond the visual into sculpture, writing and installations --- creating, along with cubism, what we now think of as "modern art."
Notable Artists
The most notable cubist artists are Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, who founded the movement together. Picasso's "Guernica," perhaps his most famous painting, exemplifies the cubist style of flat, relatively colorless, highly abstract imagery. Other artists painting in the cubist style include Albert Gleizes and Jean Metzinger, who co-authored the book "Du Cubisme" in 1912 --- one of the first critical works on cubism. It was not only a treatise but a manifesto on the need to create new visions of the world, rather than simply copying what one could already see.
