Les Demoiselles d’Avignon
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. Pablo Picasso. 1907 C.E. Oil on canvas.
- A street associated with prostitution; a brothel
- Cubism is a radical break from the traditions of the Renaissance; chiaroscuro, linear perspective, manipulation of light are irrelevant
- Picasso was in love with illusionism, here he destroys it
- Ideas about sexuality, confrontational painting
- Women look at us directly, engage the viewer
- No stylistic coherence; many styles
- Figures are really close to us; no space behind or between
- some shadow, some highlighting; deconstruction of three dimensional form.
- Can art be raw, ugly?
- African masks represent danger
- France’s colonialism; France had large possessions from Africa; artists knew very little of the cultures these works came from
- Expresses flatness; visual language to represent modern culture.
- First cubist work; no alluring poses; dichotomy in painting; others lightly painted, others roughly; multiple views expressed at the same time; influenced by primitivism