Cubism was essentially a revolution in the approach taken by an artist to space, both on the flat surface of a canvas and in sculpture. As noted by Laurie Adams (1997: 461), "the main European impetus for Cubism came from Cezanne's new spatial organization: building up an image from constructions of color. Other decisive currents of influence came from so-called 'primitive' cultures and the art of the Iberian peninsula."
Two of the most influential figures in the Cubism movement were Pablo Picasso from Spain and Georges Braque of France. This essay will consider the work of these two artists, comparing and contrasting their approaches to Cubism.
Michael Brenson (1989: 1) described Picasso and Braque as having been virtually inseparable in the early 1900s. A critical difference between the two is that Braque worked more slowly than Picasso and exhibited an ethical rigor rivaling that of Cezanne (Brenson 1989: 1). In contrast, Picasso worked rapidly and saw Cezanne's work as a source of inspiration. Brenson (1989: 2) views Braque as inventive and influential and as a forerunner of Abstract Expressionism while Picasso moved from the angular shapes and metallic colors of his early Cubist works to a more rhythmic and primordial approach.
Edward Fry (1988: 296) stated that Picasso's Cubism was concerned with the external world and with a more or less direct response to that world. Picasso is seen by this analyst as having become aware of a new way of thinking about and representing the world which Fry (1988: 296) calls reflexive. The reflexivity of the Cubist genre is represented in an encounter between Enlightenment modernity, the Kantian critique, and an academic orthodoxy. Picasso brought to his Cubist work a classical background which Fry (1988: 297) asserts Braque did not share.
Picasso's earliest Cubist painting was a portrait of Gertrude Stein (Janson 1986: 681). Another major canvas from the early ...