The Cubists first exhibited together in a dedicated room at the Salon des Indépendants in 1911.
That year’s Paris exhibition became a major public turning point for Cubism. Organizers placed works by Jean Metzinger, Albert Gleizes, Henri Le Fauconnier, Robert Delaunay, Fernand Léger and others together in Room 41. Until then, works at the Salon were generally arranged alphabetically, so the concentrated display made the group appear as an organized movement.
The exhibition provoked intense public and critical discussion. Henri Le Fauconnier’s large painting Abundance attracted particular attention, while the room’s combination of faceted forms, multiple viewpoints and unconventional compositions helped make “Cubism” a widely recognized term beyond the artists’ immediate circles.
The 1911 Salon des Indépendants is sometimes confused with the Salon d’Automne held later that year. Cubist works were also displayed together in Rooms 7 and 8 at that autumn exhibition, but the first dedicated grouping at the Indépendants belongs to the spring of 1911. The event is therefore often described as Cubism’s public breakthrough.