It is important to note that cubism is a unique artistic approach to expressing reality with an emphasis on abstract elements over pictorial ones. The given assessment will primarily focus on Picasso’s early cubist painting titled Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon. The artwork is an exceptional piece of creation that sought to revolutionize how female beauty is represented with the use of distortions and fragmentation.
In order to properly understand and assess Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon, it is critical to define cubism beforehand. It is “a style of art that stresses abstract structure at the expense of other pictorial elements, especially by displaying several aspects of the same object simultaneously and by fragmenting the form of depicted objects” (Merriam-Webster, 2022, para. 1). In other words, cubism extensively utilizes fragmentation, abstraction, and loss of pictorial features to illustrate an image in a unique manner. The painting is about female beauty and nudity depicted in a non-conventional style, which is aimed at challenging the human perception of the idea. It is stated that the painting “caused an uproar when it was exhibited, as it depicted nude females in a nontraditional manner. These females are angular, unfeminine, and unflinching in their nudity” (Lloyd, 2019, para. 1). The title means the young ladies of Avignon, which is a simple and direct description of the content and context of the items portrayed in the artwork.
One should be aware that cubism is about questioning and challenging the norm of traditional painting styles. It is highly common to see shattered forms in cubist works, such as Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon, because it is exceptional at “reducing everything to ‘geometric outlines, to cubes’” (Tate, 2022, para. 2). The visual reality is essentially treated as a template on which an artist uses abstraction to segment, fragment, and distort the perceived imagery into distinct geometric shapes. Therefore, the approach inevitably causes the shattering of the whole and cohesive forms into fragmented pieces, such as shattered glass.
Cubism can be best understood by considering its background in order to describe the art style and the selected artwork. It is vital to emphasize that cubism was mainly inspired by Paul Cézanne’s paintings, neoplasticism, constructivism, and African tribal masks (Tate, 2022). The result is the fact that the artwork becomes “highly stylized, or non-naturalistic, but nevertheless present a vivid human image” (Tate, 2022, para. 5). Picasso’s Demoiselles D’Avignon was the first purposefully cubist painting made on the basis of the stated inspirations (Tate, 2022). The given artwork was followed by Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon, which completely revolutionized the art world. It did so by revealing infinite opportunities to depict the visual reality in a manner that is abstract and geometric. The term constructivism should be used to address cubism’s influence because it reflects the reality of the modern industrialized world of machinery, organization, and technology. Another useful term is neoplasticism, which focuses only on vertical and horizontal lines to induce the human mind’s purest representation of the world. The importance lies in the fact that these innovative approaches were direct outcomes of Picasso’s artwork in cubism.
In conclusion, Les Demoiselles d’ Avignon is a painting with historical significance, which revolutionized how an artist can represent and depict visual reality by using abstractions and fragmentations. It was inspired by a multitude of influences, but it itself became the gateway to numerous possibilities opened up for the artists of modernity. The painting challenges the core concepts of female beauty by distorting it into shattered ‘cubes.’
References
Lloyd, T. (2019). The controversy behind Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by Pablo Picasso. Singulart.
Merriam-Webster. (2022). Cubism.
Tate. (2022). Cubism.