1906: oil on canvas; 244 x 234 cm; Museum of Modern Art, New York City, USA.
"Pablo Picasso's painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon , marks the beginning of Cubism, a revoloutionary artistic movement initiated by Picasso and his fellow artist George Braque. Picasso first started work on this painting in his Parisian studio in 1906. The final composition shows clearly the influence of both Cézanne, who had famously declared that all nature was based on the sphere and the cone, and the simplified forms that Picasso had found in African art. The right hand side of the painting, in particular, with its flat shapes and mask like heads, shows what a dramatic break with tradition this was. Although Picasso is primarily associated with Cubism, his so called Blue period, with its melachonic depiction of lowlife, was another significant early phase in his development. From 1914 onward, his work evolved in many other directions. Paintings, drawings, collages etchings sculptures, stage designs and ceramics were produced at an astonishing rate with subjects as diverse as classical mythology and the horrors of war. After exhibiting with the Surrealists in 1925, he continued jto experiment with characteristic energy and confidence until his death, aged ninety two, in 1973. He was indisputably a genuis and the founder of modern art."
