# Cubist Pictorial Space

> The pictorial revolution of Picasso and Braque that shattered single-point perspective into overlapping, faceted planes seen from several viewpoints at once. Through papier collé and stencilled lettering it brought real printed matter and type onto the picture plane, handing graphic design the fragment, the shallow layered plane and collage as working tools.

- Period: 1907–1925
- Where: Western Europe
- Origin: Paris (Montmartre and Montparnasse), France
- Branch: Avant-garde
- Also known as: Cubism, Analytic & Synthetic Cubism, Papier collé
- Page: https://stylogeny.com/styles/cubism/

## How it works

- Break each object into faceted planes and show it from several viewpoints at once.
- Flatten depth: let planes overlap and slide into one another instead of receding to a vanishing point.
- Paste real printed matter (newsprint, labels, wallpaper, faux-bois paper) onto the surface as both texture and sign.
- Introduce stencilled or clipped letters as word fragments, cropped mid-word so they read as shapes and puns.
- Restrict colour to ochres, browns and greys, or, in the synthetic phase, to a few flat, opaque planes.
- Anchor the composition on a central scaffold of interlocking verticals, diagonals and arcs that dissolves toward the edges.

## Its design choices

Defining choices make the style, characteristic ones are usual, occasional ones turn up now and then.

### Layout & composition
- [Collage & layering](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/collage-and-layering/) (defining)
- [Dynamic asymmetry](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/dynamic-asymmetry/) (characteristic)
- [All-over field](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-over-field/) (occasional)
- [Diagonal axis](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/diagonal-axis/) (occasional)

### Space & hierarchy
- [Horror vacui](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/horror-vacui/) (characteristic)
- [Flat hierarchy](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-hierarchy/) (characteristic)
- [Visual tension](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/visual-tension/) (occasional)

### Typography
- [Stencil](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stencil/) (characteristic)
- [All caps](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/all-caps/) (characteristic)
- [Eclectic mixing](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/eclectic-mixing/) (occasional)
- [Experimental & distorted](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/experimental-and-distorted/) (occasional)

### Colour
- [Earth & mineral](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/earth-and-mineral/) (defining)
- [Monochrome](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/monochrome/) (characteristic)
- [Analogous harmony](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/analogous-harmony/) (characteristic)
- [Flat fields](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/flat-fields/) (occasional)

### Form & shape
- [Angular & zigzag](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/angular-and-zigzag/) (defining)
- [Stylised figuration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/stylised-figuration/) (defining)
- [Rectilinear](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rectilinear/) (characteristic)
- [Non-representational](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/non-representational/) (occasional)
- [Distortion & exaggeration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/distortion-and-exaggeration/) (occasional)

### Surface & texture
- [Painterly brushwork](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-brushwork/) (characteristic)
- [Paper & letterpress bite](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/paper-and-letterpress-bite/) (characteristic)
- [Skeuomorphic material](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/skeuomorphic-material/) (occasional)

### Ornament
- [Ornament-free](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/ornament-free/) (characteristic)

### Imagery
- [Painterly illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/painterly-illustration/) (characteristic)
- [Found & vernacular imagery](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/found-and-vernacular-imagery/) (characteristic)
- [Line illustration](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/line-illustration/) (occasional)

### Medium & production
- [Hand-painted](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/hand-painted/) (defining)
- [Pen, brush & ink](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/pen-brush-and-ink/) (characteristic)
- [Letterpress](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/letterpress/) (occasional)

### Tone & intent
- [Rebellious & subversive](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/rebellious-and-subversive/) (characteristic)
- [Playful & witty](https://stylogeny.com/design-choices/playful-and-witty/) (occasional)

Avoids: Illusion of depth, Naturalistic depiction, Central symmetry, Gloss & highlights, Fluorescent & neon, Abundant decoration

Palette: #8b6b3e, #c9b48a, #6e6a5e, #2a241d, #e6dcc3, #3e5a6b

Typefaces: Sign-painters' stencilled capitals (Braque, from 1911), Clipped newspaper mastheads and headline grotesques (Le Journal), Didone newsprint text type in pasted fragments

Known for: Pablo Picasso (Still Life with Chair Caning, 1912); Georges Braque (Fruit Dish and Glass, 1912, the first papier collé; stencilled letters from 1911); Juan Gris; Fernand Léger (illustrations for Blaise Cendrars, La Fin du monde filmée par l'Ange N.-D., 1919); Sonia Delaunay & Blaise Cendrars (La Prose du Transsibérien, 1913)

## Where it comes from, and what it’s close to

- Led to: [Italian Futurism](https://stylogeny.com/styles/futurism.md) (1909–1944)
- Led to: [De Stijl](https://stylogeny.com/styles/de-stijl.md) (1917–1931)
- Alike in its design choices: [Russian Futurist Book](https://stylogeny.com/styles/russian-futurist-book.md) (1910–1920), 62% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Cartonera Books (Latin American Cardboard Publishing)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/cartonera-books.md) (2003–present), 55% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Polish Poster School](https://stylogeny.com/styles/polish-poster-school.md) (1950–1990), 48% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Zagreb School of Animated Film](https://stylogeny.com/styles/zagreb-animation.md) (1954–1980), 48% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Chilean Estallido Social Graphics (Revuelta Popular of 2019–20)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/chilean-estallido-graphics.md) (2019–2022), 47% alike
- Alike in its design choices: [Arab Independent Comics (Samandal, TokTok, Lab619, Skefkef)](https://stylogeny.com/styles/arab-independent-comics.md) (2007–present), 47% alike

## Real works

- [The Bottle of Anís del Mono (La bouteille d'anis)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Juan_Gris_-_La_bouteille_d%27anis_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg): Juan Gris, 1914 (June), Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid (AD01818; image: Google Art Project via Wikimedia Commons)
- [Fruit Dish and Glass](https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/490612): Georges Braque, Sorgues, autumn 1912, The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection)
- [La Fin du monde filmée par l'Ange N.-D. (cover)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blaise_cendrars,_fernad_l%C3%A9ger,_locandina_per_la_fin_du_monde,_1919.jpg): Fernand Léger (design), for Blaise Cendrars, 1919, Wikimedia Commons (photograph by Francesco Bini of an exhibited copy; Commons places it in the Musée national d'art moderne, which no museum record confirms). The Art Institute of Chicago also holds the book (200435).
- [The Bar (Le Comptoir)](https://clevelandart.org/art/1999.102): Louis Marcoussis, 1920, The Cleveland Museum of Art

## Sources

- Philip B. Meggs & Alston W. Purvis, Meggs' History of Graphic Design
- John Golding, Cubism: A History and an Analysis, 1907–1914 (1959)
- Johanna Drucker, The Visible Word: Experimental Typography and Modern Art, 1909–1923 (1994)

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From Stylogeny (https://stylogeny.com/), an atlas of graphic-design styles by Van Riel Online Services. How it is made: https://stylogeny.com/about/. Cite as: Stylogeny, “Cubist Pictorial Space”, https://stylogeny.com/styles/cubism/