How did the introduction of collage in cubist paintings challenge art?
Prior to the Cubists collage had been used as a decorative technique. To use collage in “serious” art was a challenge to orthodoxy in several ways; It introduced elements from the “real” world into paintings (before this painters had used illusion to imitate reality). It used manufactured or printed matter, challenging the idea of the precious and unique art object. It deliberately went against the idea that art should concern itself with “beauty”. It was a central element of Synthetic Cubism which challenged the conventional view that pictures of reality should be based on observation and skilled painting. From the New York Met. website; During the winter of 1912–13, Picasso executed a great number of papiers collés. With this new technique of pasting colored or printed pieces of paper in their compositions, Picasso and Braque swept away the last vestiges of three-dimensional space (illusionism) that still remained in their “high” Analytic work. Whereas, in Analytic Cubism, the small
