Who Says That Homework Is Dull?

Yesterday I helped my niece to focus her research for her essay about French culture. I must say it took me back to my years at art college and university as I refreshed my knowledge of Picasso, Cubism and the birth of Modernism.

PABLO PICASSO – Les Demoiselles d’Avignon (Paris 1907)

Exhibited in MoMA – Museum of Modern Art

There would be no MoMA without this painting. The painting is ahead of its time and changed the language of art for Picasso and the art world. Oil on canvas 8ft by 7ft 8,” the painting took 9 months to create. Initially Spanish born Picasso was prone to working in the styles of Art Nouveaux and Symbolism. In Barcelona Picasso met Henri Toulouse and Edward Munch who introduced him to the cultural avant-garde movement along with his friend Jamie Sabartés. The Avignon of this painting is red light district in Barcelona.

At its first exhibition the painting initially shocked and enraged its audience.

Created at a time of pioneering thinkers who challenged established norms of thinking and behaviour. Picasso abandoned all traditional forms and representation in art and established himself as a master and a founder of Cubism, the most influential art movement of 20th century.

This is what he did instead:

• Omission of perspective, no vanishing point
• Used multiple viewpoints to paint the figures (called “simultaneity,” multiple perspective,” or “multiplicity”)
• Countered the tradition of deified human form for geometric shapes. Women are made up of splintered planes and jagged shards
• Restructured artistic conventions ie. used simple forms, angular planes and bold shapes
• No shadows
• Used a multitude of styles in one painting
• The sex-workers are self-possessed and not there for the “male gaze,” to attract or embarrass
• Focused on form over content ie the narrative
• The figures deconstruct the gaze in a painting that defies meaning just by looking at the picture
• Revolutionised the western art paradigm
• Recognised other cultural references

The image repelled when it was first exhibited in 1916 because of its style not content. Prostitutes were taboo but seen in art. Picasso’s women were unapologetically naked, staring at the viewer. Without the presence of a customer in the painting, the viewer becomes the customer. (Picasso removed characters in the 9 months it took to paint.)

The Avant-garde movement is that which is experimental, radical or unorthodox to cultural art or society. Picasso pushed the boundaries accepted as norm or status quo. Initially the term referred to French radicals in 19th century, then linked to the arts in the middle of the century. Art becomes instrumental to social change, Picasso had settled in Montmarte, Paris.

Today avant-garde refers to intellectuals, writers and artist and architects that challenge norms and society. Yesterday’s radicals become today’s mainstream and then new radicals emerge. 

High culture and mainstream culture are formed from capitalism and therefore rejected by the Avant-Garde as Kitsch, which is the antithesis of avant-garde. Look into Matei Calinescu book called ‘5 Faces of Modernity: Modernism, Anant Garde, Decadence, Kitsch, Postemodernism.’ In France from Cubism sprang Orphism, Abstract Art and purism and then its wider reach across the world as it became Futurism, Suprematism, Dada, Constructivism, Vorticism, De Stijl and Art Deco

In the painting two of the women have masks influenced by Iberian and African art that Picasso saw at the in the museum. At the time Africa was colonised by France. This painting is the break between past and the future, it even anticipates the end of painting itself.

There was a readiness for new ideas and so radical thinkers declared God dead. The aesthetic was heralded as the new inspiration and a superstructure which ethics, politics and the psychical relied upon for representation. Art was taking the place of God. The focus on the aesthetic continues to this day.

More than 100 years later the image is still haunting, spiritual, and unsettling.