The Cubist Cosmos: From Picasso to Léger

The Cubist Cosmos traces the development of Cubism between 1907 and 1917. The publication reveals the boundless innovative power of the works of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. It also shows how the Cubist pictorial language was received and advanced by the artists of the Parisian avant-garde – such as Fernand Léger and Sonia Delaunay – and how it evolved into colourful large-format pictures. The volume reflects not only the enormous range of this stylistic direction but also its revolutionary potential, which went on to influence the further development of twentieth-century art.

In chronologically and thematically devised chapters the publication shows how the influence of folk art and archaic sculpture as well as the works of Paul Cezanne 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 Leger, 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.