Les Demoiselles D’avignon Essay

My museum paper is on the Les Demoiselles dAvignon, painted by Pablo Picasso in Paris, June-July 1907. Oil on canvas, 8x7 8 (243.9233.7cm). He became one of the superlative and most influential artists of the 20th century and the creator (with Georges Braque) of Cubism. A Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, Picasso was considered radical in his be given. Born October 25, 1881, Malaga, Spain, and after a presbyopic productive career, he died April 8, 1973 in Mougins, France.This was my first time at the Museum of Modern Art I never went there because I never had e preciseone to go with me. I went with my cousin she is an art teacher and who better to go to the Museum of Modern Art with then an art teacher. When we first got to the museum there wasnt much to see in the lobby. We went on the escalator to the fifth floor were hundreds of people walking all idea-out the galleries. My cousin explained all the different types of art and artists to me as we were walking though the galleries. I s sack up up in the Alfred H. Barr Jr. Painting and Sculpture Galleries where I seen a painting from a French painter, Fernand Leger called Women with a Book I thought that was the painting that I wanted to do my report on, but when I seen art guide from Pablo Picasso like, The Studio, Ma Jolie and The Three Musician I was speechless. Some of his work that I seen at the museum was breathtaking, but one in particular caught my fondness it was the Les Demoiselles dAvignon.It is located in the Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller, Second Gallery. As you walk into the gallery, the Les Demoiselles dAvignon is the first painting you see, because of how large it is, and all the b respectable colors in the art work. When I seen the Les Demoiselles dAvignon in my art book I finished that it was a nice painting, but when I stood right in-front of it I was astonish. The Les Demoiselles dAvignon is not just a painting it truly is a master piece. in tha t location had to be about thirty people standing around the Les Demoiselles dAvignon and another twenty people face at the other art work in the room. Some people were just standing looking at the painting, some taking pictures.As I, started taking pictures of Les Demoiselles dAvignon I couldnt assistance but notice the painting to the right, it was called Repose and to the leftfield was another painting called the Two Nudes both are painted by Picasso. Les Demoiselles dAvignon are the womanhood of Avignon, the term demoiselles (meaning young ladies), was a euphemism for prostitutes and Avignon refers not to the French town but to a street in the red-light district of the city of Barcelona where Picasso was a young artist. (Art A Brief History), pg 532. Print. The dAvignon are actually five prostitutes, and these are five women naked. Theyre looking at us, as much as were looking at them. The very early studies show a sailor walking into this curtained room where the ladies sta nd and the woman on the far left straightaway has the traces of having been that man entering the room, and you can even feel a certain masculinity in the sort of sculptural carving of her body and the way that the very large foot is stepping toward the others.It almost seem like its a build-up of geometric stages, and if you look at the chest of the woman at the very top right, you can see one of these cubes making up the space underneath her chin up, thus the name Cubism. One striking aspect of this painting is the way that its staged on which these women are painted, is almost looming out at the viewer. Rather than feeling like these woman are nice and safely set stand in some kind of room, that you are peering into. I feel like the woman are almost piled on top of each other. Piled in such a way that the canvas is almost stepping out at the viewer. Its part of the desire of the painting to confront you, I think physically, psychologically, as well as intellectually with eve rything thats going on in it. Its painted in pink, peach flesh skin tones against a back drop of brown, fresh and blue curtains. The figures are very flat and theirs is little illusion that these are real bodies. Looking at the five figures from left to right, the woman to the far left is standing in profile facing right with her left hand she reaches up fag end her head to hold an orange brown curtain back.She has long straight black sensory hair falling down her back. Her head, from the neck up peers to be in shadow or sun-tan, its a darker brown than the pinkish flesh of her body. She stares straight ahead expressionless. Her right eye from the front view is large, simplified and out-lined in black with a black pupil surrounded by brown. Her right arm hangs stiffly by her side. Her breast jets forward in a ruff square shape. Beside this figure, in the center of this painting are devil women looking directly forward, straight out of the canvas. Their black eyes are wide and u neven. Their left eye brows extend a sweeping line to form simplify jimmys. Their mouths are straight lines.The one on the left raises her bent right elbow and places her hand behind her head, as if posing seductively. Her black hair is pulled back and falls behind her left shoulder. Her breasts are half circles none of the womens breast has nipples. The women on the right, raises both arms and puts both hands behind her hand. Her dark brown hair is pulled into a high bun. The last two figures dont fit in with the painting, they are unexpected. The one to the top right stands back, her raised arms parting the blue curtain on which shes coming out from. Her black hair hangs down her back one eye socket black and empty. Her nose, like her face is large and elongated, striped diagonally in green across her cheek, suggesting less the face of a human then the forms of an African mask.In front of her, is another woman she is sitting or squatting, elbow on one raised knee which jets forwa rd at the center of the painting almost looks as if her back is facing the viewer, but that is not true because her dark tan face is turned towards the viewer. She raises her arm to her face and beneath her chin is a large ambiguous form recalling a boomerang, it might be her hand, or a piece of melon shes eating. Her body is flat and her nose is also stripped. Her face looks like a mask, and she has one uneven eye completely white, the other completely blue. The drapery behind them doesnt hang restfully it looks like shatter pieces of glass with blue and white tones.In the center at the bottom of the painting are assorted fruits on a contract white cloth a pear, an apple, grapes and a slice of melon. The pear and apple have shrieks of red in them, the melon is reddish too and the grapes are grizzly white. In conclusion, my experience at the Museum of Modern Art was delightful. Walking through the museum and seeing ancient statues and painting from so many different decades was s o fulfilling. I didnt realize how much I enjoy looking at art work I just wanted to see more and more. I kept asking myself, how did they do this? How did they do that? What were they thinking when they paint this? Even though I didnt get all my answers I was like a sponge, soaking it all up. What a wonderful, amazing day. I will definitely go back.BibliographyCothren Michael W., and Marilyn Stokstad. Art A Brief History 4th ed. Page.531, 19-7. Acquired through the Lillie P. joy Bequest (333.1939) Laurence King Publishing Ltd, London. (2010-2007) Print.Museum of Modern Art 11 West 53 Street, New York, NY 10019. April 29, 2012 Pablo Picasso. Les Demoiselles dAvignon. 1907. Oil on canvas, 8 x 7 8 (243.9 x 233.7 cm). Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest. 2003 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. http//www.moma.org/ Web. (2012).