Synthetic Cubism

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Synthetic Cubism was the second main branch of Cubism (the earlier being Analytic Cubism) developed by Picasso, Braque and others between 1912 and 1919. It was seen as the first time that collage had been made as a fine art work.

The first work of this new style was Picasso's Still Life with Chair-caning (1911-12), which included oil cloth pasted on the canvas, and the letters JOU, which appears in many cubist paintings. JOU may refer to a newspaper titled "Le Journal" - a common inclusion in this style of cubism whereby physically entities of newspaper, sheet music, etc. were included in the collages. JOU, often employed by Picasso and Braque, can be an implication of "game" or "play". The two had a constant friendly competition with each other and the letters are an obvious extension of that.

Another technique used was called papier collé, or stuck paper, which Braque used in his collage Fruit Dish and Cards. (1913)

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