what, by contrast, can be established is that from 1911 onwards the term became commonplace and, initially confined as it was to the painters of room 41, it was afterwards attributed to those who seemed, nearly or at a distance, to approach them, in appearance if not in spirit. apollinaire himself was initially reticent about this label and it was not until later, after this opening at the "indépendants", during an exhibition which we held at brussels, that he accepted definitively on his own and our behalf, the name 'cubist' by which all sorts of people had designated us in irony. in 1911 the word cubism was born in the same way as the word 'impressionism' in 1872.