Artists
Name: Pablo Picasso
Title: Les demoiselles d Avignon
Born: 1881
Died: 1973
Background: Picasso’s painting Les demoiselles d’ Avignon was probably influenced by the creations of other artists of his period as well. It is often argued that the structure he used, i.e. the arrangement of the nudes as “architecture of bodies”, alludes to Cezanne’s figurative works. However, certain texts, such as the book Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon (edited by Rubin W., Seckel H., Cousins J.), reject this notion and claim that only the initial sketches showed some resemblance and that the influence of Cezanne has been overestimated. Moreover, another artist that seems to have influenced Picasso’s work is El Greco and did so through his painting Apocalyptic Vision (fig. 10). Most importantly, the actual dimensions of the paintings were very similar. Even though Picasso’s initial sketches were horizontal in format, only at the very last stages does he change it to vertical. In addition, the “extreme figure distortions, autonomous drapery patterns, and the vigorous painterly execution” , as well as a certain degree of androgyny in some of the figures, are characteristics that are commonly shared by these two paintings.
Subject and Meaning:The painting shows a figurative composition of five nudes grouped around a still life in the foreground. The three on the left are angular distortions of Classical figures, while the violently dislocated features and bodies of the other two have all the barbaric qualities of primitive art. Avignon is a reference not to the French town but to a famous street in the red-light district of Barcelona.The painting is more a record of work in progress, of an artist in the process of changing his mind, than a resolved composition: the forms are dislocated, inconsistent in style, in fact unfinished. It is still a disturbing picture -- overthrowing perspective, single viewpoint, integral form, local colour, decorative colour
Name: Pablo Picasso
Title: Les demoiselles d Avignon
Born: 1881
Died: 1973
Background: Picasso’s painting Les demoiselles d’ Avignon was probably influenced by the creations of other artists of his period as well. It is often argued that the structure he used, i.e. the arrangement of the nudes as “architecture of bodies”, alludes to Cezanne’s figurative works. However, certain texts, such as the book Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon (edited by Rubin W., Seckel H., Cousins J.), reject this notion and claim that only the initial sketches showed some resemblance and that the influence of Cezanne has been overestimated. Moreover, another artist that seems to have influenced Picasso’s work is El Greco and did so through his painting Apocalyptic Vision (fig. 10). Most importantly, the actual dimensions of the paintings were very similar. Even though Picasso’s initial sketches were horizontal in format, only at the very last stages does he change it to vertical. In addition, the “extreme figure distortions, autonomous drapery patterns, and the vigorous painterly execution” , as well as a certain degree of androgyny in some of the figures, are characteristics that are commonly shared by these two paintings.
Subject and Meaning:The painting shows a figurative composition of five nudes grouped around a still life in the foreground. The three on the left are angular distortions of Classical figures, while the violently dislocated features and bodies of the other two have all the barbaric qualities of primitive art. Avignon is a reference not to the French town but to a famous street in the red-light district of Barcelona.The painting is more a record of work in progress, of an artist in the process of changing his mind, than a resolved composition: the forms are dislocated, inconsistent in style, in fact unfinished. It is still a disturbing picture -- overthrowing perspective, single viewpoint, integral form, local colour, decorative colour
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