What is Cubism?

Cubism is when artists make pictures that look like objects are broken into pieces and put together in a new way.

Imagine you have a toy car. If you look at it from the front, it looks one way, but if you also look at it from the top or the side, it looks different. Now imagine an artist draws all those views at once on the same paper, like they’re showing you multiple sides of the toy car in one picture! That's kind of what Cubism does.

Think about a box. If you draw it normally, you might just draw the front and top. But with Cubism, the artist shows you all the corners and sides, like they’re making the box twist or turn in strange ways on the paper.

Cubism is also a bit like building with blocks. Imagine each block is a part of an object, a face, a leg, or a corner. The artist puts these blocks together in unusual places to make something that looks both familiar and surprising, like the toy car you know, but also new and playful.