Picasso and Braque, the movement's two principal pioneers, together sought to redefine the nature of visual thinking. The dialogue between them endured through either meetings or letters from 1907 to 1914.

Published on the occasion of an exhibition held at the Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Tex., May 29-Aug. 21, 2011 and the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, Santa Barbara, Calif., Sept. 17, 2011-Jan. 8, 2012.

This volume presents art and design in France during the years between the two World Wars, in an effort to dispel the perception that Cubism was only a pre-World War I phenomenon. After the war, Cubist painting became more varied, colorful, and accessible, and began to affect other media such as furniture, fashion, cinema and architecture. What had begun as a rarefied pictorial style became a popular language. The first essay addresses Picasso's abundant and varied cubist painting. The second essay treats the art of three major Cubists -- Picasso, Braque, and Leger -- in the context of the various cubist idioms that developed. The third essay, also broad in scope, examines the significant relationship between Cubism and the decorative arts in France.