ma belle flânerie

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon is undoubtedly one of Pablo Picasso’s finest work and one of the most defining artworks of the entire century. Finished in 1907, this large oil on canvas piece that measures 243.9 cm × 233.7 cm sits proud and tall in the Museum of Modern Art in New York. It features five women in various shades of peach and tan, all depicted as nude posers. Through further research, we learn that these five women are prostitutes from a Barcelona brothel. What we see in terms of style is an early version of cubism with aspects of primitivism. Three of the five prostitutes have African-like masks covering their faces. Therefore we can conclude that African, tribal masks may have well been a source of inspiration and imagery for this work in terms of style. Although denied by Picasso himself, many researchers state that Picasso did in fact visit the ​Musée d'Ethnographie du Trocadéro during the same period , where he could have unknowingly been influenced by the African art (Richardson). The subjects themselves however seem familiar to that of El Greco’s T​he Opening of the Fifth Seal​. Picasso’s 1905 graphite drawing ​Nus seems to mirror not only El Greco’s work, but it also looks like it could be an original sketch of his ​Les Demoiselles d’Avignon. ​Jonathan Jones, a British art critic further states “​What struck Picasso about African masks was the most obvious thing: that they disguise you, turn you into something else - an animal, a demon, a god. Modernism is an art that wears a mask. It does not say what it means; it is not a window but a wall. Picasso picked his subject matter precisely because it was a cliche: he wanted to show that originality in art does not lie in narrative, or morality, but in formal invention​” (Jones).

Sources:
Richardson, John. A Life Of Picasso, The Cubist Rebel 1907–1916. 
Jones, Jonathan. Pablo’s punks, The Guardian, 2007