cubist

IPA/ˈkjuːbɪst/
KK[kjˈubɪst]IPA/ˈkjuːbɪst/

cubist — adjective

  • cubistpositive
  • more cubistcomparative
  • most cubistsuperlative

1. Describes something that is part of or connected to cubism — an early twentieth-

1.adjectiveB2
Definition

Describes something that is part of or connected to cubism — an early twentieth-century art movement where painters broke down people and objects into simple geometric shapes, often showing several sides of the same subject at once.

Example

The museum's new exhibition brings together many famous **cubist** paintings by Picasso and Braque.

cubist + painting(s) — collocation for art works

Yael wrote her art-history essay on the early **cubist** movement that began in Paris around 1907.

cubist + movement — collocation for the artistic school

Common collocations
  • cubist painting
  • cubist artist
  • cubist style
  • cubist portrait
  • cubist sculpture
  • cubist movement
  • cubist work
Synonyms
  • cubistic

    A rarer alternative with the same meaning; cubist is far more common in everyday use.

Antonyms
  • realistic

    Realistic art attempts to show subjects exactly as they appear in real life; cubist art deliberately breaks forms into geometric shapes.

Grammar Patterns

cubist + noun (painting / artist / style / work / movement)

Usage Note

Cubist is a classifying adjective, so it is placed before a noun (a cubist painting) rather than after a linking verb. Native speakers do not use comparative forms such as more cubist.

Common Mistakes

This painting is very cubist.
This painting is done in a cubist style.
Cubist is a classifying adjective that does not take very or more.
He is a cubism painter.
He is a cubist painter.
Cubism is the name of the movement; cubist is the adjective that describes something belonging to it.

cubist — noun

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: adjective/1

Cubist refers specifically to the early twentieth-century art movement that broke subjects into geometric shapes. Abstract is a much broader term — it describes any art that does not attempt to show the real world accurately, and includes cubism alongside many other styles such as expressionism and minimalism. Surrealist art, though also early-twentieth-century, is different in spirit: surrealists painted dreamlike, strange scenes rather than geometric fragments of real objects. Cubism (the noun) names the movement itself, while cubist (the adjective) describes something that belongs to it — you can study cubism, but you call a painting cubist. In short: all cubist art is abstract, but not all abstract art is cubist; surrealist and cubist are two separate twentieth-century movements with very different visual languages.

cubist ↗abstract ↗surrealist ↗cubism ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

  • cubist painting
  • cubist artist
  • cubist style
  • cubist movement
  • cubist portrait
  • cubist sculpture
  • cubist work

Phrases

  • early cubist
  • French cubist
  • cubist painter

Prepositions

  • in a cubist style
  • of the cubist movement
  • by a cubist (artist)

Etymology

LatinFrenchEnglish

Cubist comes from the French word cubiste, which was formed from cube (a solid shape with six equal square sides) and the suffix -iste. The term was first used in the early 1900s by art critics who mocked paintings by Picasso and Braque for their heavy use of cube-like forms. What started as an insult quickly became the accepted name of one of the most influential art movements of the twentieth century.