Picasso Demoiselles D’Avignon
Summary
TLDRPicasso's painting, a pivotal move into cubism, shocked the Paris art scene in 1907. Initially depicting a brothel with five women, it evolved through over 100 sketches into a complex composition of fragmented forms and jagged planes. The artwork, influenced by African and Iberian masks, rejected traditional values and painting techniques, instead favoring line drawing. This 'exorcism' painting laid the groundwork for cubism and, after years of obscurity, is now a treasured piece at the Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Takeaways
- 🎨 **Picasso's Cubism**: The painting marked Picasso's full transition into cubism, shocking the Paris art scene in 1907.
- 🤯 **Initial Reaction**: The painting was met with shock, distaste, and outrage, including Matisse considering it a hoax.
- 🖼️ **Evolution of the Artwork**: Picasso struggled with the subject, creating over 100 sketches and preliminary paintings before finalizing the composition.
- 🚫 **Rejection of Traditional Values**: The painting rejected middle-class society and traditional values, depicting sexual freedom in a brothel setting.
- 🎭 **Symbolism**: The medical student in the painting was a stand-in for the painter and symbolized death with a skull.
- 👥 **Composition**: The final composition removed the patron and medical student, focusing on five women, including one with a primitive mask.
- 🌐 **Influence of African Art**: Picasso used African masks for the faces, reflecting the influence of colonization and African art on his work.
- 🔄 **Cubist Techniques**: The painting used a linear composition, breaking forms into planes, and pushing the treatment of form and space to its limit.
- 👁️ **Unusual Perspectives**: The women in the painting were depicted from odd perspectives, with body parts shown from different angles.
- 🔍 **Detailing**: Picasso applied cubist ideas to the musculature, showing detailed anatomical parts in a deboned style.
- 🏛️ **Legacy**: The painting was initially unseen for 39 years but later became a prized part of the Museum of Modern Art, New York's collection.
Q & A
What was Picasso's painting that offended the Paris art scene in 1907?
-Picasso's painting that offended the Paris art scene in 1907 is 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'.
What was the initial reaction of the Paris art scene to 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'?
-The initial reaction was almost unanimous shock, distaste, and outrage.
Who was the painter that considered 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' a hoax?
-The painter Matisse was angered by the work and considered it a hoax.
What was Picasso's struggle during the creation of 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'?
-Picasso struggled with depicting three-dimensional space in a two-dimensional picture plane without using standard tools of illusion.
How many sketches and preliminary paintings did Picasso create before finalizing 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'?
-Picasso created over 100 sketches and preliminary paintings.
What was the original composition of 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' before the final version?
-The original composition included two men, a patron surrounded by women, and a medical student holding a skull.
What does Picasso's painting 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' signify in terms of societal values?
-The painting signifies Picasso's rejection of middle-class society and traditional values, opting for the sexual freedom depicted in a brothel.
How did Picasso's 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' influence the art movement of Cubism?
-The originality of Picasso's vision and execution in 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' helped plant the seeds of Cubism.
Why was 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' largely unseen for 39 years after its creation?
-After its initial showing, the painting was rolled up in Picasso's studio until it was bought by an art dealer in the early 1920s.
What role did African and Iberian masks play in the creation of 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'?
-African and Iberian masks influenced the faces in the painting, with Picasso using their forms and characteristics to create a sense of innocent sexuality.
How did Picasso use the concept of Cubism in the depiction of the women in 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'?
-Picasso broke the forms of the women into a series of planes, using identifiable characteristics and pushing the treatment of form and space to its limit.
Outlines
🎨 Picasso's Cubist Revolution
This paragraph discusses Picasso's groundbreaking painting that shocked the Paris art scene in 1907. The painting, a departure from traditional art, was a significant move into cubism. Picasso showed his controversial work to a group of painters, patrons, and critics, receiving a mix of shock, distaste, and outrage. The painting evolved from sketches of five women in a brothel to a complex composition that challenged the depiction of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional canvas. The final piece excluded traditional elements like color and light, instead focusing on line drawing. It featured a mix of Iberian and African influences, with the figures representing a clash of cultures and a rejection of middle-class society and traditional values. The painting was initially hidden for 39 years before gaining recognition and is now a prized piece at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
🌍 Influence of Colonization on Art
The second paragraph delves into the influence of French colonization in Africa on Picasso's art. It explains how Picasso incorporated African masks into his cubist style, breaking forms into planes and using identifiable characteristics. The discussion highlights the odd perspectives and the way forms are moved around, creating a unique representation of the human body. The paragraph also touches on Picasso's use of curvilinear forms, showing that cubism is not limited to straight lines. The painting is described as a battleground, with jagged forms in the background suggesting a critique of the brothel setting. The revolutionary nature of the piece and its development of cubism is emphasized, making it a significant artwork in art history.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Cubism
💡Picasso
💡Iberian Women
💡African Masks
💡Fetishes
💡Exorcism
💡Middle Class Society
💡Impressionism
💡Brothel
💡Cezanne
💡Surrealism
Highlights
Picasso's painting caused shock, distaste, and outrage in the Paris art scene in 1907.
Matisse considered the painting a hoax, an attempt to paint the fourth dimension.
Picasso struggled with depicting three-dimensional space in a two-dimensional picture plane.
The original composition included two men, but in the final composition, they were removed.
The medical student in the painting has been called a stand-in for the painter himself.
The painting is described as a battleground with the remains of the battle left on the canvas.
Picasso turned his back on middle-class society and traditional values with this painting.
Picasso chose line drawing over color and light, contrasting with popular movements in painting at the time.
The painting is referred to as Picasso's first exorcism.
The painting remained largely unseen for 39 years after its initial showing.
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, now owns the painting and it is a prized part of their collection.
The painting represents a radical new method of representing form in space.
Picasso used African masks as a basis for the faces in the painting.
The women in the painting are fractured and interwoven with jagged planes.
Picasso pushed Cézanne's treatment of form and space to its absolute limit.
The painting includes identifiable characteristics such as the tricep part of the muscle of the arm.
Picasso applied the cubist idea to the musculature of the woman in the painting.
The jagged forms in the background give a sense of time and argue against the brothel.
Cubism is shown to not be limited to straight lines but can use curvilinear forms.
The painting is revolutionary and a significant development in the history of art.
Transcripts
[Music]
is really picasso's move
fully into cubism
with this painting the spanish painter
picasso
offended the paris art scene in 1907.
he would show his eight-foot square
canvas to a group of painters
patrons and art critics at his studio
and he meets with almost unanimous shock
distaste and outrage the painter matisse
is angered by the work which he
considered a hoax an attempt to
paint the fourth dimension quote
it was the ugliness of the faces that
froze with horror the half converted
the critic solomon wrote later
the painter de raine commented riley one
day
we shall find picasso has hanged himself
behind his great canvas
now in the months leading up to the
painting's creation picasso
struggles with the subject what were
originally five women in a brothel
he would create over 100 sketches and
preliminary paintings wrestling with the
problem of depicting
three-dimensional space in a
two-dimensional picture plane
one that we've dealt with throughout but
he doesn't want to use the standard
tools of illusion the original
composition included
two men a patron surrounded by the women
and a medical
student holding a skull perhaps
symbolizing that the wages of sin
are death but in the final composition
the
patron is gone and the medical student
who has been
called a stand-in for the painter
himself
has become a fifth woman with a
primitive mask holding back the crimson
curtain
to reveal her well quote-unquote sisters
the painting is described as a
battleground with the remains of the
battle left on the canvas
the iberian women in the center of the
canvas
clash with the hideously masked
creatures standing and squatting on the
right
in creating ledomasal de avilla picasso
turns his back on the middle class
society and traditional values of the
time
opting for the sexual freedom depicted
in a brothel
he also rejects popular current
movements in painting by choosing line
drawing rather than color and light
uh defined forms of impressionism in the
fove so he's going with a more
linear composition which is in stark
contrast to everything else we've seen
in france
up until this point now the painters
private demons take
shape in the figures on the canvas
picasso later calls
demos el de avillon my first exorcism
painting he likens the act of painting
to that of
creating fetishes or weapons if we give
spirits a form we become independent
states picasso now the originality of
picasso's vision and
execution in this work helps plant the
seeds of cubism
after its initial showing the painting
remains largely unseen for 39 years
it is shown in paris in 1916 and then
lies
rolled up in picasso's studio until it's
bought in the early 1920s
sight unseen by an art dealer it is then
going to be reproduced in the
publication the revolution
surrealist in 1925 but remains
relatively unknown
until 1937 when it's eventually shown in
paris
today the museum of modern art new york
owns it and it becomes a prized
part of their collection
but let's look at the piece overall now
this is less than a year after
he's done gertrude stein or the painting
of gertrude stein
and we see a radical new method of
representing
the form in space
so what exactly are we looking at well
we're looking at
faces that are based on african mass
such as the example here you can see
the commonalities the similarities
between the forms and he's looking at
the masks in this
case looking at their sense of innocent
sexuality which he has signs and society
assigns to the masks
in the early 20th century
instead of continuous forms the women
are fractured and interwoven with
jagged planes that represent the drapery
as well as the negative space
he's really pushing cezanne's treatment
of form and space
to its absolute limit or the limit that
he sees at the time
the faces on the left are based on
iberian stone masks whereas the ones on
the right are based on
african masks so
where is he getting these ideas he's
getting it through colonization of
course the french had heavily colonized
africa at the time especially parts of
northern
and western africa now he will break
the forms into a series of planes
and as he does this especially on the
right he's
again using those identifiable
characteristics
so as we move through it for example i
hear this woman in the center you'll see
one breast is in profile
the other is seen from below these are
identifiable forms whereas another is
seen not with
sort of an angular form but rather as
round forms
when we look at the women themselves
sometimes we see different aspects here
we see
the tricep part of the muscle of the arm
being shown as if we're looking below
the arm
upward and here we see an arm that's way
out here and we're almost looking
down at it some very odd perspectives
as he moves forms around in the masks
he's treating
just like the other faces so here's a
jaw turned
in a form that we very easily recognize
the mouth is here the nose again in
profile the eyes
independent of one another and of course
an ear that we
wouldn't typically see but he has tacted
on because
it is something that he believes is
particularly important to that
phase now he goes one step further when
we move
over to the woman on the left you'll
notice
this very odd sort of leg and what he's
done is
he's sort of deboned the leg imagine you
take someone's
leg and you remove the flesh and remove
the bone and then cut it down
sort of the inner side of it and flop it
out on a table you're going to get
something like this here's the hamstring
here's the quadricep here's the calves
on one side the shin in the middle
here's the calf on the inside as well
as on the outside he's actually applied
the cubist idea to the musculature
of the woman these jagged forms in the
background give us a sense of time but
also
it's been argued that those jagged forms
and the
forms that the women take are picasso
kind of arguing against the brothel
itself
trying to make it as ugly and uninviting
as possible after all
who really wants to enter into this
painting
so there's a lot going on here but we
definitely
get a sense of the cubism and
how cubism is developing also the fact
that cubism has nothing to do with the
straight lines that we usually associate
it with
but rather can use the curvilinear forms
of the human body and of other forms
such as the fruit
in the foreground or some of the
curtains
that we see in the background this is a
revolutionary piece and that's why we're
spending
so much time with it
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