Les Demoiselles Analysis PDF

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Les Demoiselles d’Avignon Picasso 1907 Formal Analysis  The artwork portrays five nude females from a brothel on Carrer d'Avinyó (Avignon Street) in Barcelona.  Each are depicted to be somewhat confrontational and not conventionally feminine.  The women appear to be rendered with angular and disjointed body shapes.  The three women of the left exhibit facial features that tie to Picasso’s Iberian style relative to his native country, Spain.  While the two on the right, shown in African masks, evoke racial primitivism; which inspired Picasso to “liberate an utterly original artistic style of compelling, even savage force.” Iconographical Analysis  The faces of the women on the right are inspired by African masks, which Picasso believed had functioned as magical protectors against dangerous spirits. Of which included: life-threatening sexual diseases that caused great anxiety in Paris.  Picasso claimed this painting to be his first “exorcism painting”.  Earlier sketches of the painting link sexual pleasure to mortality.  The bold expressions on the women's faces creates a strong undercurrent of anxiety within the painting. Sociohistorical Analysis  The artwork was unveiled in Picasso’s Paris studio in 1907.  In this adaptation of Primitivism and abandonment of perspective in favor of a flat, twodimensional picture plane, Picasso sways from traditional European painting.  A revolutionary part in the development of Cubism and Modern Art, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon also sparked controversy amongst many people including friends and family.  During its first exhibition in 1916, the piece was deemed immoral.  However, the painting was reproduced in Europe in 1925 during the period of Surrealism and Neoclassicism. Aesthetic Analysis  The painting is considered to be proto-cubist work. Nothing had been done like this before and it led the way for other artists to create within the cubist movement.  Les Demoiselles marks a shift from traditional composition and perspective to cubism.  It is busy and does not allow the viewers eye to focus on one aspect of the painting creating confusion.

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Picasso compressed the space of his canvas and replaced sensual eroticism with “a kind of aggressively crude pornography” in response to the works of Matisse. This makes the painting feel crowded and anxiety inducing....