Picasso's Most Controversial Painting: Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

Summary

The script delves into Picasso's 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon,' painted in 1907, exploring its groundbreaking portrayal of five sex workers. It discusses the painting's disconcerting nature, with its angular, aggressive figures that defy traditional beauty standards. The influence of African masks and the artist's own fears and desires are considered, as well as the work's role in the birth of cubism and its challenging of colonialist and feminist norms.

Takeaways

• 🎨 Pablo Picasso's early experiences, including a visit to a brothel with his father, influenced his artwork, particularly his portraits of women.
• 👩‍❤️‍👨 Women in Picasso's life, not just his romantic partners, but also patrons and strangers, were a source of inspiration for his art.
• 🖼 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon' is a groundbreaking painting that marked a significant departure from traditional portrayals of women, especially sex workers.
• 🔍 The painting is noted for its disconcerting and abstract representation of the female form, with hard, angular bodies that challenge the viewer's perception.
• 👀 The women in 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon' confront the viewer with a direct stare, reflecting an awareness of the artist's and viewer's gaze.
• 🤔 The painting invites interpretation and analysis, with ambiguous elements like the disembodied hand and the women's expressions.
• 🏺 The influence of African art, particularly masks, is evident in the mask-like faces of the women, suggesting a deeper cultural dialogue.
• 🌐 Picasso's use of masks in his art was not just aesthetic but also served as a form of magic, mediating between the known and the unknown.
• 🚫 The painting resists easy comprehension, with the figures appearing to actively reject the expectation of visual pleasure.
• 🍇 The still life of fruit at the base of the painting may symbolize fecundity or sin, adding another layer of meaning to the work.
• 🌐 The painting raises questions about colonialism and feminism, as it involves the portrayal of 'othered' groups through the artist's perspective.

Q & A

What significant event happened in Picasso's life in 1894 that may have influenced his artwork?

In 1894, Picasso's father took him to a brothel for the first time, which is suggested to have influenced some of his strongest work.

What are some examples of women in Picasso's life that inspired his artwork?

Picasso was inspired by women such as Dora Maar, Françoise Gilot, and Jacqueline Roque, who were his wives or mistresses.

What is the significance of the painting 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon' in Picasso's career?

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, painted in 1907, is hailed as an icon of modern art and marks a significant departure from traditional representations of women in art.

How does Picasso's 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon' differ from previous paintings of similar subjects?

Unlike previous paintings, Picasso's work is highly disconcerting with a lack of discernible reality, depth, or dimension, and features jagged, fragmented bodies.

What is the role of the bowl of fruit in 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon'?

The bowl of fruit at the base of the painting serves to definitively separate the world of the 'demoiselles' from the viewer's reality.

How do the women in 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon' differ from those depicted by Ingres, Manet, or Matisse?

While the women in the works of Ingres, Manet, and Matisse are soft and fleshy, Picasso's women are hard, angular, and strong, with an aggressive posture.

What is the significance of the hand emerging from above the first figure's head in 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon'?

The unnatural hand creates ambiguity and prompts questions about its ownership and purpose, reflecting Picasso's use of ambiguity as a key element in his work.

How does Picasso use the figures in 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon' to challenge the viewer?

The figures confront the viewer with their gaze, refusing to provide visual pleasure or give themselves away, challenging the expectation of the female nude as an object of desire.

What influence did African art have on Picasso, particularly in 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon'?

Picasso was profoundly influenced by African masks, which are evident in the mask-like faces of the last two figures in the painting.

What does Picasso mean when he refers to painting as a form of magic?

Picasso viewed painting as a magical process that mediates between the artist and the hostile universe, imposing form on fears and desires.

How does 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon' reflect Picasso's views on art and its relationship to power and fear?

The painting suggests that art can be a means of seizing power by imposing form on terrors and desires, as influenced by the African masks that served as intermediaries between people and the unknown.

What are some possible interpretations of the fruit in the still life at the base of 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon'?

The fruit could be interpreted as an allusion to fecundity or sin, or it might underline the sensuality of the painting, although its 2-dimensional, gestural nature suggests it serves more as a painting element than a realistic one.

How does 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon' address colonialist or feminist subtext?

The painting involves 'primitive' art and women, both of which are subject to the artist's colonizing brush, and it is open to interpretation whether they are restored or empowered under it.

Outlines

00:00

🎨 Picasso's Artistic Inspiration

The script begins with a backstory of Picasso's early exposure to the world of sex work through his father, which is suggested to have influenced his artwork. It discusses how women, including his wives, mistresses, and even sex workers, became muses for his creations. The narrative then focuses on 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon,' a groundbreaking painting completed in 1907. This piece is recognized as a seminal work in modern art, challenging conventional aesthetics. The painting portrays five sex workers from a Barcelona brothel in a disconcerting manner, with an abstract, geometric space that lacks depth. The women are depicted with angular, hard bodies, in stark contrast to the soft curves found in earlier works by other artists. The script delves into the confrontational gaze of the women, suggesting a refusal to cater to the viewer's desire for visual pleasure. It also explores the possibility of the painting reflecting Picasso's own fears or desires through the use of mask-like faces, drawing a connection to African art and the use of masks as a means of mediating between the known and the unknown.

05:02

👁‍🗨 Confrontation and Ambiguity in 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon'

This paragraph continues the analysis of 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon,' examining each figure individually. It describes the first figure's profile and the enigmatic hand above her head, which adds to the painting's ambiguity. The next two figures are covered partially by white sheets, posing with arms above their heads, and their bodies are depicted with sharp geometric shapes. The last two figures, set against a blue background, have more mask-like faces, reflecting Picasso's later fascination with African art. The script includes a quote from Picasso about his experience with African masks and how they influenced his understanding of art as a form of magic. The analysis ponders whether the masks on the women serve to manage Picasso's fears or desires or to separate the sex workers from the viewer. The paragraph also discusses the spatial compression and lack of coherence in the painting, suggesting a sense of fear, alienation, and otherness. The inclusion of fruit in the painting is noted, possibly as an allusion to sensuality or sin. The script concludes by raising questions about the colonialist and feminist subtexts of the painting, and how it represents a break from artistic tradition.

Keywords

💡Picasso

Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer who is one of the most recognized figures in 20th-century art. In the video script, he is discussed as the artist who painted 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon', which is a significant work in the history of modern art and a precursor to cubism. The script explores how his experiences and the women in his life influenced his art.

💡Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

This is a painting by Picasso created in 1907, which is considered a seminal work in the development of modern art. The painting depicts five nude women who are sex workers from a brothel in Barcelona. It is noted for its groundbreaking use of geometric forms and fragmented body parts, which were a departure from traditional representations of the female nude in art.

💡Modern Art

Modern art refers to artistic works, movements, and tendencies from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century that broke away from traditional styles and emphasized new forms of expression. In the context of the video, 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon' is hailed as an icon of modern art due to its innovative approach to form and representation.

💡Cubism

Cubism is an early 20th-century art movement pioneered by Picasso and Georges Braque, which rejected traditional perspective in favor of a fragmented, abstracted representation of objects. The video suggests that 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon' contains the seeds of cubism, with its disjointed forms and lack of coherent space.

💡Sex Workers

Sex workers are individuals who engage in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The video discusses how Picasso's painting represents sex workers and how their portrayal challenges traditional depictions of women in art. The painting is also seen as a reflection of Picasso's own experiences and views on sexuality.

💡Fang Masks

Fang masks are traditional African masks from the Fang people, which Picasso collected and were influential in his work. The script mentions the influence of these masks on the faces of the women in 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon', suggesting a connection between African art and modern European art.

💡African Art

African art refers to the visual art and design of indigenous African peoples. In the video, it is discussed how Picasso was profoundly influenced by African art, particularly masks, which he saw as 'magic things' and mediators. This influence is evident in the angular and mask-like features of the women in the painting.

💡Alterity

Alterity refers to the state of being different or other. The video uses this term to discuss how Picasso's painting represents 'the other', specifically women and African art, which are both objectified and empowered in the painting. It raises questions about the colonialist and feminist subtext of the artwork.

💡Disconcerting

Disconcerting means causing unease or anxiety. The video describes 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon' as disconcerting because of its challenging visual style and the unsettling way it represents the female form, which is a departure from more traditional, pleasing depictions of women.

💡Ambiguity

Ambiguity refers to the quality of being open to more than one interpretation. The script mentions that ambiguity is a key aspect of Picasso's work, particularly in 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon', where the unnaturalness of the figures and the disjointed space invite multiple interpretations from the viewer.

💡Still Life

Still life is a genre of art where inanimate objects are depicted, often to examine the aesthetic aspects of form and light. The video discusses the bowl of fruit at the base of 'Les Demoiselles d’Avignon' as a still life element, which may have symbolic meanings related to sensuality, knowledge, or the artifice of painting.

Highlights

Picasso's father introduced him to a brothel at the age of thirteen, which influenced his art.

Women in Picasso's life inspired some of his strongest work, including portraits of Dora Maar, Françoise Gilot, and Jacqueline Roque.

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon is considered an icon of modern art and a challenge to traditional aesthetics.

The painting depicts five naked women, who are sex workers from a brothel in Barcelona.

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon is disconcerting due to its lack of a discernible 'reality' and depth.

The women in the painting are portrayed with jagged, fragmented bodies, unlike the soft curves of previous artworks.

The women in the painting confront the viewer with a direct stare, challenging the expectation of visual pleasure.

The painting features an unnatural hand that raises questions about its ownership and symbolism.

Picasso was influenced by various artistic styles, including early Egyptian art, evident in the portrayal of the figures.

The women in the painting are portrayed with aggression and angularity, resisting comprehension.

The last two figures are visually separated by a blue background, indicating a different level of interpretation.

Picasso's use of mask-like faces may represent a mediation between fear, power, and the unknown.

The painting is seen as the seed of cubism and modernist fragmentation, with a lack of coherence and space.

The still life of fruit at the base of the painting may symbolize fecundity or sin, adding to the artwork's ambiguity.

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon raises questions about colonialist and feminist subtexts within the artwork.

The painting represents a fundamental break with artistic tradition, featuring five naked women and a bowl of fruit.

Transcripts

Spain, 1894.

José Ruiz y Blasco, Pablo Picasso’s father,  

takes his then thirteen year old  son to a brothel for the first time

…And, although we’re not really going to go  into detail here about Picasso’s exploits,  

it’s safe to say that the women in his life  would inspire some of his strongest work.

Just look at his portraits of Dora Maar

Or Françoise Gilot

Or Jacqueline Roque

…But this grouping isn’t limited to wives  and mistresses. Picasso notoriously derived  

inspiration from everywhere, from  patrons and strangers to sex workers.

Which brings us to Les Demoiselles  d’Avignon painted in 1907,  

just thirteen years after his  introduction to the world of sex work.

Les Demoiselles has been hailed  as an icon of modern art and  

an affront to “good sense.” Equal  parts brilliant and troubling,  

incendiary and confusing, this  painting merits close, direct analysis.

What you’re seeing here is the  legendary Spanish painter’s depiction of  

5 naked women — sex workers from a well-known  brothel on Carrer d’Avinyó (which is Catalan  

for ‘Avignon Street’) in Barcelona,  where the artist lived at the time.

Granted, the subject isn’t exactly revolutionary.  Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres did it in 1814  

with Grande Odalisque. Édouard Manet,  famously, with Olympia. And Edgar Degas,  

too, in his Brothel Monotypes — to name a few.

What is new, however, is how Picasso handles it.  

Unlike the paintings we’ve seen, Les  Demoiselles d’Avignon is highly disconcerting.

For starters, we don’t understand where exactly  these women are. Picasso tells us, in the title,  

their location — but this specificity is belied by  the lack of any discernible ‘reality’ surrounding  

them. The ‘demoiselles’ or ‘young ladies’ in this  painting occupy an incomprehensible (frankly,  

unreadable) geometric space. We have  no real sense of depth or dimension,  

and a bowl of fruit at the base of the painting  definitively separates their world from ours.

When we look at this painting, what  we’re actually seeing are jagged,  

fragmented bodies displayed (as if behind a  glass case) aggressively in a space which only  

serves to underline their angularity — or, one  that dis-embodies the (displayed) bodies. Yet,  

unlike the women of Ingres, Manet,  or even Matisse (with their soft,  

fleshy curves) Picasso’s demoiselles are  hard, angular, and strong. Aggressive, even.

Like Manet’s Olympia, a few of Picasso’s women  stare directly (read: confrontationally) out  

at the viewer. However, unlike Olympia (lying  in a bed, surrounded by sumptuous materials  

and flowers), here, there is little trace of  sex appeal. In their clear-eyed, aggressive  

posturing, it is obvious that these women are  aware of the artist’s (and viewer’s) gaze. To  

some extent, they may even expect it. Yet, they  do not give themselves away. This is no inviting  

Maja Desnuda — instead, we are met with  expertly crafted masks and exaggerated poses  

(too exaggerated to be mistaken for anything but  artifice). The elbows jut upwards into space,  

while the faces are half contorted beyond  recognition, half impassive, illegible.

…But perhaps the best way to  get to grips with this painting  

is by exploring these figures  individually, left to right:

We see the first figure in profile. She faces  the group, and directs our gaze bodily to the  

frieze-like scene unfolding before us.  Her foot is also seen from the side,  

consistent with early Egyptian art. Picasso was influenced extensively  

by various artistic styles, some of which can  be seen in this work. But back to the figure:  

a strange hand emerges from the space  just above her head, and seems to reach  

for something beyond the canvas. Indeed hands  — disembodied, twisted, or reaching — figure  

prominently in much of Picasso’s work, from  Girl on the Ball to later Girl before a Mirror  

and (several times) in his masterpiece,  Guernica. In Les Demoiselles d’Avignon,  

the unnaturalness of the hand almost begs  the question — whose is it? (Our options:  

the first figure’s, or no ones). And, if it  is her hand, why does it look so unnatural?  

The back of the hand faces out, toward us (we can  see the nails). So, is this unnaturalness down to  

a sense of display (the effortful twisting and  contorting of the female nude under the (male)  

artist’s gaze? Or something else entirely? As  with much of Picasso’s work, ambiguity is the  

watchword. We may never know definitively, but  it is fun to explore different interpretations.

The next two figures seem to be a group  within the group — they are both covered  

(to some extent) by white sheets. Both have  their arms above their heads and are (quite  

consciously) posing. The body of the first of the  two is a complex of stark geometries — her torso  

is an hourglass, her groin a triangle, her armpit  a perfect V (the visual antithesis to her elbow,  

which forms an inverted V above her head). The  second figure in this grouping is more columnar,  

and takes the first’s pose a step further  by placing both arms above her head. Like  

the first figure, her eyes stare, they  do not flirt. Her mouth is a simple line,  

a dash — communicating nothing. There is  aggression (in the stare, in the posture,  

in the jagged angularity of the bodies), but  there is no desire (on the women’s part) to be  

comprehended. Indeed, Picasso’s demoiselles seem  to actively resist comprehension: their staring  

eyes confront — refusing the expectation of visual  pleasure. They know they are on display. They know  

you are looking at them (and they are looking  at you, too). You cannot get too comfortable.

The last two figures are separated visually  from the others by a blue background, and for  

good reason. For one thing, their faces are more  objectively mask-like than the others (we see the  

influence of Fang masks especially in the standing  figure). Later an avid collector of African art,  

Picasso was profoundly influenced by African  masks (as is clear in Les Demoiselles d’Avignon).  

Describing a visit to the (now) Musée du Quai  Branly, Picasso says:

“But I forced myself to stay, to examine  these masks, all these objects that people had  

created with a sacred, magical purpose, to serve  as intermediaries between them and the unknown,  

hostile forces surrounding them, attempting  in that way to overcome their fears by  

giving them color and form. And then I  understood what painting really meant.  

It’s not an aesthetic process; it’s a form  of magic that interposes itself between us  

and the hostile universe, a means of  seizing power by imposing form on our  

terrors as well as on our desires. The day  I understood that, I had found my path.”

It is clear from his language that, for  Picasso, these masks were not objects of  

pure visual pleasure. He has to “force” himself  “to stay” — it is an act of will. Moreover,  

he is aware that this art, in its removal  from the European tradition, is the product of  

another consciousness, another set of facts, which  produces different insights, different solutions.

Furthermore, according to Picasso,  

“the masks weren’t just like any other  pieces of sculpture. Not at all. They were  

magic things…mediators […] Les Demoiselles  d’Avignon must have come to me that day.”

But mediating…what? Did Picasso give  the sex workers mask-like faces in an  

attempt to render whatever fear he had of  them (whatever power they held over him),  

or his own desire — more manageable?  Or, is the mask intended to separate  

the sex worker from the viewer (the client, the  artist) — to protect the self from “unknown,  

hostile forces” and retain one’s sense of agency,  of power? Again, it’s open to interpretation.

Returning to our subject, the  figure in the foreground is seated,  

a pink body in three-quarter view blending  into itself with a twisted head. One gets  

the sense that she has turned to confront  the viewer and is not at all happy about  

what she sees (we might read displeasure in her  eyebrows, and her mouth is slightly ajar). Yet,  

she too poses — her hands rests gently at  an angle against her back — she almost takes  

the shape of a vase, as we see the arms  positioned at either side, like handles.

The last figure, bookending the  frieze, seems to occupy her own niche,  

almost. Her arms disappear behind folds of blue  (could it be a curtain?). Like the first woman,  

she looks at the group (not at us). Has  she also stumbled in upon this scene?  

In her positioning, the direction of her gaze  and body, she takes us back into the picture.

And what we find there is fear, alienation, and  an abiding sense of alterity. In Les Demoiselles  

d’Avignon, we see the seed of cubism, of  modernist fragmentation. There is a lack of  

coherence — the space itself in illegible. Where  are we? (Well, the brothel on Avignon Street,  

of course) but what is that? Why is everything so  close together, so compressed? There is no room to  

breathe. No space. It is a secret space, a space  of disclosures — but within it one does’t feel  

secure, but rather disoriented and dislocated  — like the hand above the first woman.

And what about the fruit? The still life of  grapes, apples, and a slice of melon at the  

center of the base of the frame? Like  much of Picasso’s work, it might mean  

anything. One might read it as a crude allusion  to fecundity. As the apple of knowledge (here,  

fleshly), of sin. In initial drafts the group was  eating — Is it meant to underline the sensuality  

or delectableness of the painting? Likely  not — it is clear that this is 2-dimensional,  

gestural fruit. It is a painting,  there is no pretension to reality here.

…And, can we talk about Les  Demoiselles d’Avignon without  

addressing the colonialist or feminist  subtext? The fundamental alterity which  

has been built into the canvas? This  is a painting all about the other,  

involving so-called “primitive” art and women  — both fall under the artist’s colonizing  

brush — perhaps both (depending on your reading)  — are restored or empowered under it? Perhaps not.

And what, in the end? A fundamental break with  

artistic tradition: 5 naked women  arranged around a bowl of fruit.