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Pablo Picasso in Paris
© Bettmann/CORBIS |
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Painting isn't an aesthetic operation. It's a form of magic designed as the mediator between this strange, hostile world and us-- a way of seizing power by giving form to our terrors as well as our desires.
-- Pablo Picasso
KERA: Let's talk about one of Picasso's most famous paintings: Les Demoiselles D'Avignon.
Yve-Alain Bois: Around 1906, Picasso discovered Matisse at a moment in time when Matisse was showing his painting The Joy of Life. When Picasso saw that particular painting, he was shocked, because what Picasso was doing at that time was much more academic. And Picasso said to himself, you know, ‘Oh, my God, I have to respond to that guy, I can't let it go.’ And so what developed very quickly in his mind was the now-famous painting: Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.
Rick Brettell: Instead of having nymphs frolicking in a landscape and being indifferent to the spectator, in Les Demoiselles d'Avignon they look at you. They are very, very scary women who look you in the eye, and it puts the beholder on the spot. So there is an element of power, the sheer power of the Demoiselles d'Avignon, which is still very effective today. I never see this painting without marveling that some guy was doing that in his own studio, all by himself, absolutely certain that all his friends would laugh at it.
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