Picasso, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, 1907
Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles D’Avignon is a masterpiece of western art in the collection at MoMA. Some have suggested Picasso’s painting is the most important work in Modern Art.  Picasso executed over a hundred sketches and preparatory studies before completing the painting in 1907. Explore the following website on the artist and the painting. Pay careful attention to the sections “Looking at the Work” and “Preparatory Drawings,” and study the details of the picture. What strikes you as most interesting in Picasso’s <em>Demoiselles? </em>Do you think the painting was controversial for its time?
Columbia University’s Unpacking Les Demoiselles d’Avignon website
Please post or comment on a fellow student’s post by May 19th.
I think the painting is definately controversial for its time because not only does it include naked women but some are in very sexual poses and the way some of the females are portrayed is unusual, with the orange and green masks. People may say that it’s the most important work in modern art because it’s abstract and paintings from before we’re more realistic and were usually portraits or historical pictures. What I find interesting is the color the females are painted, in a pink , peach color that makes me relate to their sensual poses.
I do strongly agree with that this is very controversial for its time because women back in the day were portrayed as covered women who needed not to show such public sexuality in that time. Women were portrayed to be proper and more modest then the women of our time now. the painting is very abstract especially the strange masks that some of the woman have. to me this painting sends out a wrong message of women being just there for sexual desires.
i feel that this painting now would be looked art differently, some people may not look at this as a important piece of art but they would mostly think is avery sexual . i find it interesting how he painted the women in the posses they are place. they all send a very sexual message but they all are relating to it from a different point of view. if someone would go the measum now to see this painting they wont look at the detail they would just assume that its mean to be “reaveling ” or sending out a message that is all about women and there sexual life.
In the time this art work came out it was very controversial because the women appear as slightly menacing and rendered with angular and disjointed body shapes. During this time art wasn’t shown like d’Avignon it was completely different from the artists works who were against his art and from what people were use to seeing. I think its clever how he used two of the women with african mask like faces and three with iberian style giving them a savage impression.
I agree, I think that this painting is controversial for its time. Today the painting would be looked at differently because people are more open with their sexuality. And today artists as well, portray their message eventhough its something sexual. This painting is also interesting because it doesn’t look like a typical painting from the early 1900’s; it seems like a very modern painting. Usually in the 1900’s paintings were more realistic and straight to the point.
I don’t think the painting should have been considered controversial. First of all, I personally have a problem with people referring to art as a controversy. Art is supposed to be evocative and have a bit of an edge to it. Just because it is a painting of nude women done with a modern twist, in my opinion, does not make it controversial.
It’s the artist’s vision of naked prostitutes. Paintings of prostitutes had been done in the past, but not as avant-garde as Picasso’s. I have always been on the fence when it comes to Picasso, and this painting still does not take me off that fence. Art is very personal, and I personally am not a huge Picasso fan.
What mostly strikes me from Picasso’s art “Demoiselles D’avignon” is the lack of modesty, even though they are exposed these females have the confidence to embrace it and pose instead of hiding it. The background doesn’t seem normal, it just looks 2 dimensional and oddly shaped, I cannot tell where they are at. I noticed the other characters at the right and head doesn’t have facial features of a human being. Last that is interesting about this painting is that they all seem like they are ladies but their bodies are oddly shaped like if they were made by shapes.
When this art work came out it was very controversial because the females were all naked. But I don’t think the painting should have been considered controversial. Its not this was the first time there has been art that has been nude. What I like about this art was the colors used for the faces.
I think Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon is genius. The way he deals with the problem of depicting three-dimensional space in a two-dimensional picture plane. It must have taken a long time to perfect this painting. I’m guessing he did a whole bunch of preliminary paintings and sketches before actually beginning the actual painting. I admire that he looked to a couple of different cultures for inspiration on this master piece for two of the women are shown with African mask-like faces, and the influence Iberian sculpture had on the painting.
I think not only was it controversial but way ahead of its time. It is hard to believe its over 100 years old. The sketches i find interesting because the women are placed permanently, the question was if the men would be included and I am glad they weren’t. I think it would have taken away from it, the more I look at it the more I think Picasso is challenging our perception of beauty. Even though the faces are rough there is a grace to the women and yet the positioning gives them an air of vulgarity. I think its really creative and must have rocked the art world when it was first revealed.
This is definitely controversial for its time. Especially coming from a well known artist. Them being prostitutes and the poses he paints them in are clearly to express sexual desires. What threw me off a it were the faces at first. I thought maybe the women he was drawing weren’t the most attractive type haha. And from that thought I could see that the nudity is what most viewers were talking about, they were so blinded by nudity that they couldn’t see the culture behind it. That why I love art, theres always something behind it that a first glances won’t let you see.
I think what made this painting controversial is it veered away from the norm of what other artists were doing. Many artists were sticking to the classical styles and painting what they knew. Picasso tapped into other forms of art like african art and iberian art. He took this influences and created new ways to depict a normal subject such as a woman. People were not used to seeing unfavorable subjects like a prostitute, much less see it in an abstract form.
i agree because people were used to more classical, peaceful, meaningful paintings. To have a painting with prostitution was unheard of and could have caused many problems.
I think that people back in the days always had a mean critique for emerging artists but as time passes by the artist’s painting becomes more well known and accepted as art. Of course everyone has their different opinions even today but back then everything was more strict and taboo; it was unacceptable to see naked women especially prostitutes being painted. But I think Picasso was brave enough to show real life and combine it with art created from the past. It is one of the many challenges an artist has to face with being their self and expressing new ideas. Taking chances is what it takes to become well known and Picasso as well as many other artists took that chance and expressed how they feel through their works of art even if it’s controversial or not it shouldn’t matter.
This work of art is controversial because of the nudity used. No one was used to this and to see five woman naked is wrong and they are all in sexual poses. it makes the viewer seem like he or she is the one entering the painting and they are looking at the viewer.
The sexuality of the figure poses contributed to the painting’s controversy. In previous paintings of nude figures there had been no over fear of sexuality, the figures were unclothed. But in Les Demoiselles, the figures were not pictured nude to prove how well Picasso could paint a womans body they instead showed a sexual display. While the figure in the bottom right half of the canvas, the most distorted of the five, squats in an unlikely position, we see her body from the back but she is facing the viewer. This image of sex workers displaying their goods was upsetting to a society used to viewing painting of idealized historical and religious matter.
I believe this painting would be controversial even if it was from our time. Just by the sexual pose that some of the woman are in alone would cause people to criticize it. Not the mention the ones who are looking out at the viewer in an inviting way. This painting made me become a Picasso fan just for the guts he had to paint this and the amount of work he put in to finish it.