Many people tend to think that the quality and value of art is related to its level of realness – how perfectly illustrated in relation to the human observer. However, it was not long before artists, like Cezanne, Picasso and Braque, and later on Hockney, began to explore a more natural approach to human perception. As mobile creatures living in a fourth dimensional world, these artists argued that although the work of Rembrandt is indeed visually compelling, there is an element missing in these forms of art: time and space through the human experience. Cubism, an art form that developed in the early twentieth century, is an attempt to encompass the narrative of visual human perception. Hockney will later make attempts to reimagine Cubism through photomontages that he call "joiners" which will again, attempt to draw upon the unique experience of mobile perceivers. .
In order to understand the development of cubism one must first consider the background in which it derived. "The art movement arose out of the need to define and represent the then new modern reality," (MDC) an author of Miami Dade College describes. They explain that, "this new reality was complex and ambiguous Discoveries radically changed the pace of life and ways in which society perceived the nature of things. In the past, life had been static; now however, science and technology were forced modern man to experience time, motion and space more dynamically. People were suddenly thrust in a world of expanding vision and horizons, of accelerated tempo and mobility and of fluctuating perspectives." Einstein's theory of relativity only seemed to encourage this widespread movement, which suggested "we live in a world of shifting perspectives," (MDC) Furthermore, the growing global exchange and international relationships revealed the dynamic indifference between the East and West; "each culture brought along with it a new, idiosyncratic way of looking at things, and the interchange occurring between cultures obscured the perception of truth.
