The Cubist Cosmos: From Picasso to Leger

This volume unfolds the development of Cubism between 1907 and 1917. It conveys the moment’s enormous stylistic range and its revolutionary potential for the art that would follow during the twentieth century. It also presents as part of the story of Cubism the way that representatives of the avant-garde adopted and transformed the Cubist pictorial language. In chronologically and thematically arranged chapters the publication shows how the influence of folk art and archaic sculpture as well as the works of Paul Cézanne initially became increasingly evident in the paintings of Picasso and Braque. From 1908 crystalline, geometric elements, as it were, appear. Until 1911 the characteristic prismatically fragmented forms and an almost colourless austerity dominated. The new pictorial language was taken up by artists like Juan Gris, Fernand Léger, Robert and Sonia Delaunay and Henri Le Fauconnier, who developed and presented it in large formats in the Salon exhibitions of the Paris art world.