The Young Ladies of Avignon

“The Young Ladies of Avignon” by Pablo Picasso

Growing up to become one of the most influential artists of the 20^th century, Pablo Picasso was a Spanish artist who contributed his “technical mastery, visionary creativity and profound empathy [that] distinguish him as a revolutionary artist.” In his adolescent years, Picasso demonstrated his talent with the arts at a very young age, and from there he began to experiment with different styles. One painting that is regarded as the first Cubist painting, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, has been called the single most important painting of the 20^th century.  

   The five women represent prostitutes from Avignon Street, in Barcelona’s notorious red-light district, which Picasso knew well (thanks to skipping school). All the nude women are posing in aggressive positions, locking eyes at you. Two out of the five figures are wearing a mask that can be described as African tribal mask. One figure that grabs your attention is the one that pop, locks, and drops it, toward the lower right side. She goes all exorcism on you, turning her head 180 degrees to look at the viewer. It consists of sharp angular shapes, and pink hues. I linked a video to give you guys a little reference to pop culture (The Exorcist).

   In the making of this large canvas, Picasso’s early idea included more than just the naked women; it involved a medical student and a sailor as well. The sketch, Medical Student, Sailor, and Five Nudes in a Bordello, presented the sexually, aggressive women among the docile men. An interpretation from this painting can be rooted to the threat of venereal disease in the brothels during Picasso’s youth, where such problems had the possibility of being fatal.  

   The medical student (who resembled Picasso) symbolized the artist’s fear of the combination of sex and death, as well as his hatred for women “as carriers of life-threatening disease”; comparable to the subject of famme fatale.   Comparing the original idea to his final draft, Picasso replaced the med student for a prostitute, and removed the sailor altogether, focusing the prostitutes attention toward the viewer.  

   A big influence that we see that inspired Picasso is the use of Iberian African tribal mask. Picasso once said that African sculptures were “the most powerful and the most beautiful of all the products of the human imagination.” He had already seen such works during studio visits to artist who were collecting African art, including Matisse, Derain and Vlaminck. 

   In 1985, Robert colescott recreated the famous painting, Les Demoiselles d' Alabama. The artist is famous for depicting the "ugly ironies of race in America.""My painting makes fun of the culture of tokenism," Mr. Colescott told the New Orleans Times-Picayune. 

http://www.biography.com/people/pablo-picasso-9440021?page=4 

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/11/AR2009061104002.html