The Rise of Cubism

Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler (25 June 1884 – 11 January 1979) was a German-born art historian, art collector, and one of the premier French art dealers of the 20th century. He became prominent as an art gallery owner in Paris beginning in 1907 and he was among the first champions of Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and Cubism.



Cubism began as an analysis, of the nature of the aesthetic. The present little book is an account of the cubists’ experiments by a man who was their friend and advocate, as well as a dealer in their works, a man who has reflected on their achievement all his life. Kahnweiler formulates their problem in the beginning of this book in the sentence that reads, ‘representation and structure conflict.’ Written as early as 1915, this book is the story of the solution that they worked toward; when it came to be seen, it broke the back, if only temporarily, of centuries of naturalistic representation. Since then the struggle to be free from nature has passed into other hands, and will pass in turn to still others — as long as modern society remains what it is, and man’s insight into it and himself increases, the distance between the objects in the world and an enlightened mind will lengthen.