FREE ESSAY ON PICASSO'S LES DESMOISELLES D'AVIGNON

PICASSO'S LES DESMOISELLES D'AVIGNON

Les Desmoiselles d'Avignon
Though the backbone of art was formed by academies that graduated classical artists, some
of the most influential artists broke away from such academies to change the rules.
Impressionists, led by Claude Monet, formed a group of artists originally rejected from
the academies to paint in their own objective reality. They painted art as sifted through
their senses; taking into account the environment's affect on an object or placing the
focus on everyday activity, the impressionists helped redefine art. While they started
the process of the transformation of art, Pablo Picasso advanced it many times over.
Though classically trained, Picasso painted art by what views he saw in his head and
imagination, not by how his eyes or other senses interpreted a scene. He shamelessly
broke all the classical rules of three-dimensional space, colors, figures and subject
matter. Distinguishing his work from that of a camera and of other artists, Picasso
redefines art for the future in a method called cubism. In Les Desmoiselles d'Avignon, he
paints his initial attempt at breaking all classical rules and distinguishing himself
from every other artist in history.
One aspect of Pablo Picasso's art that distinguishes him from earlier artists is the lack
of three-dimensional space displayed in his art. In Les Desmoiselles d'Avignon, the five
lady figures seem to be enveloped in what might be construed as the background. In
contrast to earlier Raphael paintings for instance, where red drapery serves as a frame
for Mary and baby Jesus, Picasso's figures appear to be actually wearing the drapery. The
far woman on the left appears without clothes, except for the piece of red drapery strewn
across the right side of her body. Each successive figure shows her full body with the
exception of where the drapery covers her. By redefining the three-dimensional space and
forcing the characters to take on the full focus of the viewer, Picasso forces the
observer to take an undiluted look at the women without the comfort of a beautiful
landscape on which to fall back. 
While the women and the background mold into one, the only indication of any
three-dimensional space is a small fruit basket in the foreground. Containing grapes and
two apples, the fruit basket sits on either a little table or stool just in front of the
ladies. The fruit give the observer a sense of intruision; it seems as if the observer
has entered a private party of prostitutes and that we have interrupted their eating.
While the bowl, coupled with the women's stares ,serves to engage the viewed in the work,
Picasso also might mean for the still life to mock earlier artists. While it used to be
considered a necessity for artists to prove their ability in the academies by perfectly
capturing still lives, Picasso's sarcastic portrait of the fruits could be a message to
classical artists that there is more to art than the ability to paint fruit. Similarly,
Picasso adds few aspects of shading to keep his mostly two-dimensional space. However,
the shading he does add points out that like all great artists, he can perfect shading,
although he is content to create his own rules.
Pablo Picasso further distinguishes himself from other artists with his portrayal of the
human figure by breaking up traditional forms of the body. In creating the figures of
five naked women, Picasso rejects all classical teachings; he showed angular breasts
without nipples, knees at sharp angles, a nose that resembles a triangle, off-center
eyes, no navel, and no pubic hair on any of his models. In short, he seems to reject any
mildly photograph-like portrayal of his women. For instance, the woman on the far right
has a face of silver colored with green and the woman to our left of her is colored blue
from her nose to her chin that reflect his interest in African art. Picasso paints his
models how he feels they should look, not how they would really look if one saw them on
the street. With the emergence of the camera, there was not a need to paint exact
replicas of the women. Therefore, Picasso decides that instead of painting a classical
from of reality, he paints the reality that exists only in his head. Also, he chooses to
arouse the viewer's interest in their view of beauty. By having his models shamelessly
exposing themselves and their distorted bodies, Picasso forces the critic to reexamine
whether his or her conventional view of beauty exists in his art world.
Besides their obvious exposing of their bodies, Picasso's models also engage the
spectator in eye contact. Each women makes eye contact with the viewer, although not all
of their bodies actually face the audience. He makes the audience become an integral part
of the work, as the interaction between the women and the viewer make the viewer shy back
from the cold stares in the party that he has interrupted. Also, Picasso forces his
audience to ask why these unconventional women embrace their nakedness and revel in their
self-confidence. In turn, he trounces previous models of beauty and makes one wonder that
if the women are satisfied with themselves as they are, does it matter whether the viewer
sees them as pretty or not?
Pablo Picasso chooses, as his five models for his first cubist work, women who employ
themselves as prostitutes. To compliment his breaking of the rules of art, Picasso might
have found it easier to distort women whose morals were already distorted in the public
mind. This being his first foray into the act of breaking all the classical rules for
art, Picasso can easily show unflattering views of women who were not previously thought
of as high class ladies. While such women were morally questionably, their beauty usually
was not questioned. Therefore, Picasso can show the beauty that he sees in his mind on
women who the public already views as pretty; the audience does not have to stretch its
mind as much. 
To further distinguish his art from art of the past, Pablo Picasso chooses highly
unconventional colors for both the figures and the drapery behind the women. To display
the women, he uses light blue, silver, green, dark blue, and gold. Classically trained
artists do not use such colors to paint a human figure; the colors would be more fitting
of a landscape. To show the drapery, he uses maroon, pink, light blue and gray-white. Not
only does Picasso violate all rules of what colors on the palate to use, he also paints
with colors that do not necessarily agree with each other, nor are they pleasing to the
eye. Besides succeeding in painting his recital of the women, but he also shows classical
artists that he can paint with whatever rules he wants and still accomplish his task. His
breaking of the mold of the classically correct colors to use serves to further
distinguish his new brand of art from the classical works.
Picasso's application of paint also diverts from such classical painters as Rembrandt who
painted so the viewer could see each individual brush stroke through its texture. While
Picasso's viewer can see each brush stroke, it is not from its thick texture. Instead
each deliberate stroke stands out as a broad stroke, not a heavy stroke that builds up on
the canvas. In fact, the crayon-like strokes are angled and sharp, not blended in to show
some classical beauty. 
Pablo Picasso, in Les Desmoiselles d'Avignon, takes his maiden attempt at breaking all
the rules of classical art and training. He uses different colors, shapes, dimensions,
and figures. While he is capable of painting in a classical style, Picasso paints how the
women appear in his mind, not how they should appear, nor how they appear as filtered
through his eyes. By shattering art's rules and codes, Picasso forces his audience to
reexamine their views of beauty and to decide whether what their view of beauty is
matters or not. In turn, the observer must re-access what has previously been considered
beautiful in previous art works. While his subject matter is important and thought
provoking, it truly does not matter what the overall message of his art is. The real
impact of Les Desmoiselles d'Avignon lies just in the fact that he painted a work to
break all the previously laid out, classical rules. By redefining the rules of art by
breaking each rule, Picasso succeeded in distinguishing himself from every other artist
in history.