Cubism was first developed between 1908 and 1912. Though the movement itself was not long-lived it did rock the conventions of art in the twentieth century. Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque were the main players in the cubism movement.

Albert Gleizes

Note: Fidel Castro was the main player in the Cuba-ism movement and not Cubism.

The work of Paul Cezanne, Georges Seurat and tribal art are said to be the main influences behind Cubism, but this has been disputed many times, even by Braque himself. The idea behind Cubism is to show the essence of an object by displaying it from many different angles and points of view and the same time. In other words, an object is broken up, analyzed from many different perspectives and reassembled in abstract form.

Facet Cubism, Analytic Cubism, and Synthetic Cubism were the three phases of Cubism development. Facet Cubism, according to Understanding Media is, "…all facets of an object simultaneously for the "point of view" or facet of perspective illusion. Instead of the specialized illusion of the third dimension on canvas, cubism sets up an interplay of planes and contradiction or dramatic conflict of patterns, lights, textures that "drives home the message" by involvement."

Analytic Cubism was the first phase of Cubism that was developed. Analytic Cubism was based on reducing natural forms to their basic geometrical parts. These three dimensional parts were then reconciled on a two-dimensional plane using subdued colors to the point where painting were nearly monochromatic.

Synthetic Cubism grew out of the Analytic Cubism movement, though it was more constructionist in intent rather than the analytical and destructionist. Synthetic Cubism developed into artwork that was more decorative, appealing and easier to interpret with roots in collage. In fact, Picasso pasted oil cloth onto canvas, incorporating the real world onto canvas, in some of his Synthetic Cubism works such as his "Guitar and Violin" masterpiece.

Guitar & Violin by Picasso

By the end of World War I, Cubism had run its course. Other art movements influenced by Cubism were Futurism, Orphism, Precisionism, Constructivism, Purism and to some degree, Expressionism.