What Cubism Broke

Before Cubism, every serious Western painting obeyed one law: build a believable window using single-point perspective, the trick that makes a flat canvas look deep. Picasso and Braque broke that law and got away with it.

That single act gave later artists a new freedom. A painting no longer had to imitate what the eye sees. It could rearrange reality, show several truths at once, or be made of glued paper. Cubism didn't just change how art looked — it changed what art was allowed to be.