Les Demoiselles D Avignon

“New Encounters with Les Demoiselles d’Avignon: Gender, Race, and the Origins of Cubism” shows a more critical perspective of men (the painter and viewer), more specifically, Pablo Picasso. Paintings were geared more toward a male audience, so they could indulge themselves in their sexual desires. Anna Chave makes some valid points and explains the reason that painters chose to portray their images in this way gave me a new outlook into what they hoped to convey. The opening grabs the reader’s attention, “What is the modern art-historical equivalent of The Greatest Story Ever Told? What else but the monumental Demoiselles d’Avignon?” (Page 597). It seems that historians are both praising and criticizing Picasso for his painting of “the five rather alien-looking prostitutes vying for a client” (Page 597). Chave mentions that Picasso’s painting is given recognition for destroying and constructing since it is tied together with Cubism, “the painting is now more loosely considered a curtain raiser or trigger to Cubism” (Page 597). This was not a surprise since Picasso was one of the cofounders of Cubism; however, she references that he was not the first to do so. Not surprising, artists choose their topics that they produce based on their …show more content…
If I had viewed this painting knowing the intended audience after it first came into the public eye, this outlook would not have shocked me because society has established gender roles and what is acceptable for each gender. Looking at it today, appalls me; people (male and female) need to be treated respectfully and everyone should understand diversity (cultures, races,