cubism

• Cubism

From French cubisme. One story is that, in 1908, as a new canvas by Braque was being carried past, someone said, “Encore des cubes! assez de cubisme!”. The quotations below ascribe the coinage to Matisse. Sometimes attributed to French art critic Louis Vauxcelles who popularized the term.

See also the word cube (from Latin cubus, from Ancient Greek κύβος (kúbos)).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈkjuː.bɪz.əm/

cubism (countable and uncountable, plural cubisms)

1. (often capitalized) An artistic movement in the early 20th Century characterized by the depiction of natural forms as geometric structures of planes. [from 1900s]
   • 2003 March 3, The New Yorker:

     Matisse coined the name Cubism as a derisive joke.

   • 2005 August 29, The New Yorker, page 78:

     A few recall that, in 1908, he [Matisse] inspired the coinage of the term “cubism,” in disparagement of a movement that would eclipse his leading influence on the Parisian avant-garde.

• cubist
• cubistic
• cubistically

• cubism on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Borrowed from French cubisme.

cubism n (uncountable)

1. cubism