Full Description
In Picasso's Demoiselles, eminent art historian Suzanne Preston Blier uncovers the previously unknown history of Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, one of the twentieth century's most important, celebrated, and studied paintings. Drawing on her expertise in African art and newly discovered sources, Blier reads the painting not as a simple bordello scene but as Picasso's interpretation of the diversity of representations of women from around the world that he encountered in photographs and sculptures. These representations are central to understanding the painting's creation and help identify the demoiselles as global figures, mothers, grandmothers, lovers, and sisters, as well as part of the colonial world Picasso inhabited. Simply put, Blier fundamentally transforms what we know about this revolutionary and iconic work.
Contents
Preface ix
Introduction 1
1. Setting, Sources, Titles, and Time 19
2. The Making of a Painting 52
3. Art in the Flesh 81
4. The Sorcerer's Apprentice 111
5. L'Oiseau du BÉnin 152
6. The Global Brothel 185
7. Le Bordel Philosophique 222
Conclusions. The Creative Nexus 264
Acknowledgments 297
Sketchbooks: New Dating 300
Chronology 305
List of Illustrations 312
Notes 333
References 365
Index 415
