How did African art inspire Cubism?

Answer 1

Many artists who painted the style of cubism were collectors of primitive art, like Pablo Picasso. They began implementing stylistic elements from African, Native American and Oceanic artwork which became known as primitivism. During primitivism artists looked for a new viewpoint of depicting art, like Pablo Picasso who had studied every form of art and began to experiment on a wide scale with form and space. Picasso states, "Cubism has kept itself within the limits and limitations of painting, never pretending to go beyond it. Drawing, design and colour are understood and practiced in cubism in the spirit and manner in which they are understood and practiced in all other schools. Our subjects might be different, as we have introduced into painting objects and forms that were formerly ignored." (1) This theory began to evolve when Picasso's began attempting to find a way to depict the females in his work into the space he had in the painting "Les Demoiselles d' Avignon." He could have traditionally shown them but decided to interweave them while showing form and space. There were many other painters, but it is stated that Picasso "epitomized modernism."(2)

References:

1) "Picasso Speaks," The Arts, New York, May 1923, pp. 315-26; reprinted in Alfred Barr: Picasso, New York 1946, pp. 270-1.

2) Fred S. Kleiner. Gardner's Art Through the Ages, 13 ed. Belmont: Wadsworth Publishing, 2009, p. 918.