Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon 

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon is considered the first painting in the modern style because the painting isn't like traditional painting of the era. women were painted to be feminine, and yet these women don't have that attribute. i believe the reason for that is because they aren't defined by curves and smooth lines, instead they share rough edges and simple forms just like everything else in the painting. each of the five women share nothing in common, even each breast is shaped differently.

this painting challenged what was the standard for painting. It got people to take a new look on what was on the canvas, more then an object but simplistic shapes. Picasso probably didn't intend for his painting to challenge the world, but it did. the use of multiple cultures embedded into one painting helped this effect. by containing the culture and such simplistic forms is was like defying god.

in my opinion, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon is considered to be the first painting in the modern style is because the effect it had one the world. the use of masks in the painting could be said to be a reference to African masks, but yet Picasso stated this wasn't true. he visited Africa a couple of months before painting it, and its stated that a lot of planning went into this painting. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon became the icon to be different, and that's what makes it the first modern painting. one could say Picasso painted the an experiment that changed the world.

The Seated Women

Bruno Barata

Dr. Donald Wellmen

Art of the Modern Period HU 308 A

3 March 2012

The Seated Woman: The Story Behind the Paint

            World War II in 1941, the German’s had really started to pick up their offensive power. At this point in the war, Germany had started their final attack against Russia. People were fleeing left and right, trying to get away from the tight grip of the Nazi’s, yet a brave man stayed to paint. The man’s name was Pablo Picasso, and the painting that captivates my eye is The Seated Woman (1941). This painting also goes by the name Femme assise dans un fauteuil. This painting displays a lot of color opposites, different perspectives, some parallel lines, and much, much more. What makes this painting so appealing to the eye is not the painting its self, but the emotion you get from seeing it. The painting, “The Seated Woman”, painted in 1941 by Pablo Picasso conveys powerful emotions simply due to the way it is painted.

            As stated, The Seated Woman was painted during WWII. He continued to paint regardless of the Nazi’s view on his work. “Picasso’s artistic style did not fit the Nazi ideal of art, so he did not exhibit during this time. Retreating to his studio, he continued to paint (Wikipedia.org)”. if you look at the painting, there is something off about the window. When the window is placed in relation to the walls and the chair, the window looks like its staring right at you where the orientation of the painting looks like he is looking at her from a higher angle. Now notice in the window the colors, yellow and red, almost as if he is showing fiery scene, which could be used to describe what was going on during the war.

            In this painting, there are a couple things that stand out right at you, let us start with the women’s face. First off, it is separated as if half of her face is hanging off the side of her head. She also has one eye facing a white wall while the other is staring at you. The white circles on her shirt are not flat, they are globs of paint made into a circle. Speaking of flat, the chair she is sitting on seems to be flat as well, it does not seem to support her at all. An interesting thing about the chair that I noticed is the shape of the chair. The chair is almost guitar shaped, this painting was painted after all the guitar paintings so there is a possibility that he could have done this on purpose. Especially since the colors of the guitar are similar to wood.

            His use of color is what catches your eye. The wall with the window is a bloody red, which is interesting because the opposite wall is a white. I believe he uses this to show the contrast between his studio and the outside world. To him, his studio was his world, a place where he could be himself and did not have to deal with the horrors on the outside. This is similar to the window wall and the green wall, these two colors are opposites on the color wheel. Another major color comparison would be between the greenish yellow floor and the women’s outline. They share the same color, to me, when I hear or talk about the floor I think about the earth. I think he is doing the same effect as the red to white wall; this is his way of separating out her from the outside world.

            Funny thing about the ground is that you can see all the bottoms of chair, and yet the walls look almost angled.  I say that this is upward angle because the fact that the blue ceiling is bordered with a lighter blue and the fact that you can still see all the wheels. The blue used for both the ceiling and the ceiling border, is also used in the women’s dress and in parts of her hand.  These darker colors are shadows, this is obvious because of the position of the window. He uses the light generated by the window to display shadows on her and instead of using a black paint to display shadows he uses a dark blue. By using blue, it almost gives the impression that the light is not that intense, almost like it is coming from a fire. Picasso does the same effect in another one of his painting called “Les Demoiselles d'Avignon”(moma.org). the last woman on the right is showing a dark shadow over her face , which could be seen as a shadow but he does not use black, but a mixture of darker colors.

            Hue and tone is heavily shown throughout the painting. I define tone as the depth of a color shown where as hue is color in its simplest form. I believe that this is what Picasso was doing with the colors in this painting. All the colors in the painting are pure color, nothing is dulled out, and everything is a vivid color, almost as if Picasso painted with the rainbow itself. Even the color black is a vivid black, it is not dull in the least bit. For example, the window is the only place that color is really mixing but it is very subtle, almost as if he painted the red over the yellow.

            What is really important from this painting is the style of the painting, she was painted during “the period of Neoclassicist & Surrealist”(wikipaintings.org). this is an interesting fact because this painting is very basic. At first I wanted to say that this painting was similar to cubism, but the more I studied different styles present around during that period I believe this painting’s style to be that of Primitivism. Primitivism is a taking shapes into their simplest forms, which can be seen in this painting. Her arm that in partly covered in shadow, is simply a rectangle, and her opening of the dress above her breasts have the simple form of a triangle. Her fingers are small ribbon like objects, objects being the key word. These ribbons are meant to represent fingers and yet they look nothing like fingers, to be honest we assume they are fingers because they are on the end of an arm, but who’s to say that rectangle is an arm. What Primitivism lacks in sophistication and multiple strokes of the brush it makes up for in simplicity.

            The Seated Woman is truly a marvelous work of art. From the vivid color of paint, that transcends the simplicity of the shapes in the woman, to the contrast that visibly battles the tone and hue in the colors. The Seated Woman gives off nothing but powerful emotions that when mixed with knowledge of the history of the painting brings together a close to a majestic work of art. This painting helps to show where cubism ended up and that simplistic form cannot be obtained, but can done in such way to make even a cluster of triangles, beautiful.

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 Works Cited

"Basic Color Theory." Color Matters Welcomes You to the World of Color: Symbolism, Design, Vision, Science, Marketing and More! Color Welcome. Web. 05 Mar. 2012. <http://www.colormatters.com/color-and-design/basic-color-theory>.

"Les Demoiselles D'Avignon." MoMA.org. Web. 05 Mar. 2012. <http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?object_id=79766>.

"Pablo Picasso." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 05 Mar. 2012. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso>.

"Pi Woman Seated." Faculty Home Pages. Daniel Webster College. Web. 05 Mar. 2012. <http://faculty.dwc.edu/wellman/Pi_Woman_Seated.htm>.

Picasso, Pablo. Woman in Striped Armchair. 1941. Currier Museum, Manchester, NH. Www.wikipaintings.org. Currier Museum. Web. 5 Mar. 2012. <http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/pablo-picasso/woman-in-striped-armchair-1941>.

"World War 2 Timeline." Timeline of Events in 1941 during the Second World War. Historic UK. Web. 05 Mar. 2012. <http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofBritain/World-War-2-Timeline-1941/>.