The Two CUBISMs

Analytic Cubism

The term ‘analytic cubism’ is frequently used to describe Braque’s and Picasson’s work of this period, suggesting a process whereby forms and objects are fragmented and then reconstituted on the surface of the canvas. While such a procedure is intuitively plausible, close examination of the paintings reveals little evidence of ‘reconstitution’. Braque and Picasso seem to have been guided by a spirit of experimentation, trying things out as they went along, rather than restricting themselves to any given method.(GalesonD.W. 2009)

Analytical cubism in fashion is the fusion of tailoring and dressmaking, the occasion when the relatively crisp forms of suits and coats, along with stolid materials, are blended with the softer stuff in fashion. Transparency is seldom present to abet the planar function.(GalesonD.W. 2009)

Synthetic cubism

It is this idea of ‘assembling’ reality from bold shapes and heterogeneous materials that lay behind the term ‘Synthetic Cubism’, which is often used to describe the work Braque and Picasso produced after they began working in collage and papier colle. In particular, ‘synthetic Cubism’ is applied to the flat, geometrically simplified works of 1912-14, with their clear, linear, contours and bright colours. Like its companion term ‘analytic Cubism’, however, the term ‘synthetic Cubism’ is to be approached with caution, since such tidy categories greatly oversimplify the work in question.(GalesonD.W. 2009)

Antliff, M., and Leighten, P., 2001, Cubism and culture, Chapter 2: Philosophies of time and space, and Chapter 4: Gender codes, Thames & Hudson world of art, New York, pp.64-111,136-159.

Galenson, D.W., 2009, Conceptual revolutions in twentieth-century art, Art and society History 20th centuryArt, Modern 20th century, Cambridge University Press, New York, pp.8-50, 51-75.