Picasso_Cubism

Pablo Picasso(1881-1973), was a Spanish painter, who is considered as one of the greatest artist of the 20th century. He is widely known for co-founding the Cubist style. He also was sculptor, ceramist, stage designer and printmaker.
Picasso demonstrated extraordinary artistic talent in his early years, painting in a realist in his early years, painting in a realistic manner at that time. Then, his style changed as he experimented with different theories, techniques, and ideas.
He arrived in Paris from Spain around the turn of the century as a young and ambitious painter.
Picasso's carer is in fact a patchwork of different styles. Picasso's work is often categorized into periods and the most commonly accepted periods in his word are the Blue Period (1901-1904), the Rose Period (1905-1907), the African-influenced Period (1908-1909), Analytic Cubism (1909-19129, and Synthetic Cubism (1912-1919)
His influence on art transcended the Picasso style and marked the beginning of a new era in modern art.
Synthetic Cubism was developeed by Picasso, Braque and Juan Gris and others in the 1913-1919. This cubism movement was characterized by the introduction of different surfaces, textures, papier colle, collage elements and a great variety of merged subject matter. This was the beginning of collage materials introduced as an important ingredient of fine art works.
Piccaso declared: 'When we painted as we did, we had no intention of creating Cubism, but only of expressing what was inside us' 'Art is a lie make us realize the truth'


LES DEMOISELLES D'AVIGNON

 It is the painting we have chosen
- This painting is an oil on canvas, with dimensions 243.9 cm x 233.7 cm created by Picasso in Paris, during the summer of 1907.
- It represents Picasso's black period which was inspired by African art and overlaps the first phase in cubism, which is called anlaytical cubism (lasted until 1911)
- It was a revolutionary and controversial painting, leading to anger and disagreement, even amongst his closest associates and friends.
-It is caharacterized by monochrome and relatively unemotional subjects.
- The painter depicts human figures by using several viewer points, which became one of the characteristics features of cubism. He dissects and reconstructs the characters, depciting its essence rather than  its appearance. Although  largely abstract, the faceted technique still produces a recognizable image of the subject.
-The work portrays five nude female prostitutes from a brothel located in Avinyó Street, in Barcelona. Its original name was 'The brothel of Avignon'.
- Each figure is depicted in a disconcerting confrontational manner and none are conventionally feminine. The bodies shape appear angular and disjointed. Two are shown with African mask-like faces and three more with faces in the Iberian style, giving them a savage aura.
- It is important the abandonment of perspective in favor of a flat, two-dimensional picture plane.

In our opinion:

-MARÍA: I like this picture; because Picasso describes the human bodies by using several viewer points and I think it makes it very interesting. The background is painted with blue and the women figures with its complementary colour: orange; and I love the contrast. The body shapes appear angular and disjointed, giving them a savage aura. I like the technique used. This painting has the same characteristics as the cubism, like different surfaces. When I read it was inspired by African art, it surprised me. The woman who is at the right side of the background  remembers me a lion and it makes the painting funny, althought I think not many people has discovered that. I also like it, because it seems like if the women were posing for Picasso. I love it, because Picasso doesn't use lots of colours (only orange, black, white, brown and blue) but it looks like if he had used more colours because there are very different values. To sum up, I like this painting.

-PILAR: I don't like this painting and this type of art because it's very abstract and I don't understand what Picasso wanted to exprese when he painted it. I think that using different viewer points makes it less atractive. It has some characterist of cubism, like it's two-dimensional and that makes us seems an abandoment of persperctive in favor of a flat. Now I understand it was a controversial painting, causing disagreement among his friends and closest painters. The first time I saw this picture, I thought the colours used aren't as stroger as the colours used in other periods of his life. The women who are at the right side of the painting looks like animals and some people think this is an insult to women. But it's true that this pisture is depicted in a disconcerting conforntational manner and none are conventionally feminine. Sorry for people who thinks this painting is beautifull, but I don't like it.


María Carracedo and Pilar Suarez de Cepeda