Author Archives: z.shao

                                                                        Pablo Picasso                                                                                                                                 Les Demoiselles d’Avignon                                                                                                                         Paris, June-July 1907

            Pablo Picasso was born on October 25, 1881, and died on April 8, 1973. He was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer and member of the French Communist Party. He is the founder of modern art and the main representative of Western modernist painting. Regarded as one of the greatest and most influential artists of the 20th century, he is 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.                                                                                                                             Picasso’s artistic career spans almost his entire life. The style of his works is rich and varied. “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” ( The young Ladies of Avignon) is a large oil painting created in 1907 by Pablo Picasso. The painting is based on the image of prostitutes in Avignon Street, Barcelona. The street is famous because of prostitution. It depicts five naked women with figures composed of flat, splintered planes. It looks like he breaks down five people’s bodies into simple geometric forms and flexible, distinct color blocks, and then recombines them on the canvas to form things to be expressed in the human body, space, and background. Just like use many broken bricks to make a building. The painters in the past saw people or things from one angle. Cubism shows things in a new way. They observe from several angles that cannot be seen on the front, and show the sides that are not possible to be seen in a parallel or overlapping way. “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” was the first work to be considered Cubist and was a landmark masterpiece. It is not only a major turning point in Picasso’s personal artistic history, but also a revolutionary breakthrough in the history of western modern art, led to the birth of Cubism movement.                                                                                                                                             When I first saw this painting, I thought it was very special. It shows a single planarity, without a sense of stereoscopic perspective. All the backgrounds and figures are accomplished through the exaggeration and grotesque of the use of color. it gives me a strong visual impact. Also, the art elements of African mysticism that used in the painting attracted me. such as the two extremely twisted faces on the painting, the distorted parts, the red, black, and white color contrast, which looked ferocious and scary. I want to know what Inspired Picasso Use Cubism to draw the painting.

Hi, My name is ZhenZhen Shao. I transferred from BMCC. It is my third semester at Baruch. My major is Finance and plan to graduate next year.