The painting I choose is from Picasso’s artwork, “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”. Pablo Picasso was one of the most well known and influential modern Spanish artists who was active in various art fields such as sculpture, painting, design and drawing. He was also “known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore” according to artists’ brief introduction from Moma.
The reason that I choose “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” is that I think this painting is different from other traditional paintings in term of how Picasso used abstract geometrical shapes and lines to depict a completely new perspective of painting. Therefore, as I felt a little weird about the naked women’s figures as I just encountered this painting. “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” is a depiction of five naked women on a compressed space while all figures seem do not have “appropriate” shapes and symmetries, instead “their figures are composed of flat, splintered planes rather than rounded volumes”(painting’s introduction from Moma). Also two women one the right cover their faces by masks. I think Picasso was depicting prostitutes since these five naked women were giving sexually appealing poses as well as the title of the artwork also referenced to brothel.
I believe this artwork is a good example of modernist since “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” shows many modernist characteristics. First of all, this piece of painting is one of the earliest artworks of cubism. There is an incoherence of space and shapes of the figures. All the figures seemed to be connected by jagged glasses, which gives people visual impacts. Further, there is also an incoherence of cultures: Spanish women wearing African masks. Secondly, As I looked at these figures, I discovers that each women was drew from different perspectives. One was drew from the front while others were depicted from the side or the back. Third, there is a rejection in the traditional perspective and ways of painting. Throughout this work, there are barely some smooth lines, instead, most of the lines which composed the whole figures were straight and curve. Therefore, this painting gives me an impression of geometrical shapes made up the major parts and overlaps of body figures. Lastly and most importantly, there is an allusion of this painting. I think instead of showing the plain feature of “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”, Picasso also wanted people to think about what is the meaning behind this piece of art. However, I do not now exactly what the messages hidden behind this incredible painting. In addition, I am also interested in what motivated Picasso to develop this new technique of painting besides he just wanted to break the traditional view of aesthetic preferences.
Works cited:
“Pablo Picasso. Les Demoiselles D’Avignon. Paris, June-July 1907 | MoMA.” The Museum of Modern Art. N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Apr. 2016.
There is so much going on in this painting, and I love that you pointed out the African Masks because I didn’t even realize that! At my first glance I got this maternal vibe from the figures and shades of the women. The women squatting reminded me of an older woman hard at work and possibly exhausted. The left hand rested on her hip and right arm propping up her head made her seem unamused and tired. Her powerful and striking body language distracted me from the mask on her face. I wonder if I would have had the same theory about this women if I noticed her mask at the museum. When I went to up to the information about the painting and read that they were from a brothel I looked again and realized the same thing you did- they were all drawn in different perspectives. To answer your question on Picasso’s hidden message, I think he was trying to portray that all women (even prostitutes) are individually beautiful and together they are also stronger.
Jing, As you know, you’ve chosen a really important painting in the history of modern art and of Cubism in particular. One thing to keep in mind here is that Picasso is trying to come up with a new way to render three dimensional figures on a two dimensional canvas. Cubism is, in part, a way of re-thinking that problem. I think that your reaction to the painting and particularly to the representation of the female nude is also a good reminder of how shocking this painting was to Picasso’s contemporaries. He isn’t necessarily trying to make these figures “beautiful” in any conventional way. I know that he talked about this painting as a kind of “exorcism;” I wonder what devil he was trying to “exorcise”?