Gender and Race in Picasso's Les Demoiselles - Assignment Example

Visual Arts and Film Studies 15 November Chaves "Picassos Les Demoiselles: Gender and Race In her historiography, Chave sights some of the critics and the artists and their various views of Demoiselles d’Avignon by Picasso. In the words of Andre Breton “In mystical terms, with this painting we bid farewell to all the other paintings of the past” (Chave 597). Critics such as Leo Steinberg who viewed the picture as a way of how women were aggressive, Robert Resenblum who according to him women used their erotic bodies as a means to attack and Max Kozloff saw it as extermination. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon was rejected at first and was hidden for more than three decades as people saw what it portrayed was simply not in accordance with their beliefs. They believed that the naked women were not a good; it was an indirect attack to the prostitutes. Chaves objective is to view the picture from a different angle which was not allowed. She uses the picture to show various facts of gender and race and how they are brought out clearly in a picture that was painted so many decades ago yet so relevant in the occurrences that have taken place in the world. 2. Mimicry is the act of copying what one is doing, their speech, look or even their actions. Minstrelsy on the other hand is whereby the Americans acted or performed skits and other acts in blackface. Picasso’s art in Les Demoiselles d’Avignon is an act of mimicry and minstrelsy whereby; using the two women on the right-hand side of the picture, he gives an exaggerated representation using the African masks which are sacred. This mimicry is to show that these women simply are African women being perceived as prostitutes. Mimicry is one of the most effective and an unrecognizable form of power that colonialists used as at a first glance it shows both resemblance and menace (Chave 599). They have the turbans which are usually worn by African women which is a continuous mimicry of African women. In Les Demoiselles, Minstrelsy is also seen where it makes fun of the clients. The urge and need of sexual satisfaction of the clients is seen whereby the prostitute has turned her back and seems to be enjoying the sex while her face is turned backwards looking at the johns in an attempt to frighten them. 3. Chave looks at the women in African masks differently from other critics as she has a more diverse way of thinking and looking at the picture. For most critics the demoiselles who have African masks, neither appeared nor looked pleasant to their eyes as all they see is them causing intense displeasure and disgust to them. They view them as if to be suffering from harpies or a disease of some kind. Chave on the other hand sees them as not ailing from anything but rather are able-bodied .Their body features which are exaggerated and have a certain type of style with them ,make her reminisce of the cartoons “Little Jimmy’s” which Picasso at the time of him painting Les Demoiselles loved watching (Chave 599). Picasso had a stocky kind of body which is similar with that of the demoiselles who have thick limbs, broad and angular shaped bodies. These traits they posses are associated with a laborers kind of body, which is believed to be stocky which is what Picasso himself had. The critics never viewed him as ugly and it is because of this that Chave also doesn’t view them as being grotesque. She also disputes the notion that the unmasked faces of the three figures on the left side of the picture are syphilitic monsters. She argues that, on the left side of the picture, the unmasked faces are those of hard working, tired women and not those stricken by syphilis. At the centre of the picture, there are two women who seem to be looking at the long queue of clients waiting. The one on the farthest left seems to be business minded as she depicts to be holding the curtain for the rest so that business may continue as usual but still checking to make sure that her money is intact. It is for these reasons that Chave views them as hardworking women and not monsters ailing from syphilis. 4. The prototypical male response is the usual and most common response expected from men. In Picasso’s picture, they view the prostitutes as appalling and disgusting, they are unhappy with this picture. The viewer is usually afraid due to the display of the woman who posses his worst fear of his past style of destruction and also no human warmth in eroticism. This hatred and devaluing of women is common and important to the male psychology. The restraint that is as a result of love for civilization is the debasing of sexual objects. (Chave 600) 5. With the success of capitalism comes the increase of the commodity and with the decrease in the difference between the merchant and the merchandise in prostitution, it is where the climax of the commodity is seen. They will be blamed for the rise in superficiality of social reactions as well as the decrease in what love really means. Where at some point in time the nudity of a woman was seen to bring joy but now all there is the nude prostitutes whereby they can only bring happiness and content to a society if they can be bought or sold. 6. Les Demoiselles was less suitable to be displayed in public since he left it in a way that made many historians to question if it had been finished or not. This kind of style could be used as some sort of mask; one could put it on when they wanted since there was no clear reason for unity. In both pictures the prostitutes are working class however, due to their different body features Manet’s are seen to be of a higher class than Picasso’s (Chave 601). She stands alone and also her surroundings and accessories differentiate her from Picasso’s who are seen as humble, always available and with a huge number of men to satisfy every day. This shows the different classes. The women seem to be servants of the one on the left .The African masks they have show all about the race and the different social status between a white woman and a colored-woman. 7. Chaves feminist methodology analyzes cubist space as it is a misunderstanding and misconception of the various pictorial spaces seen. It shows the power of the females as time continues. The spaces are the fear that the men have mostly the white men as there is increase in the people wanting political and also social autonomy. People have various dreams they think about on and off. It is this that shows of the cubist space. 8. According to Clement, when one painted, it would bring about the realization of its diverse dimensions and Clark argues that making the pictures space shallow maybe associated with the ending of the humans experience they have faced under capitalism. Chave however sees that it must be understood through the female body. The rise and increase of masculinity that makes the colored people feel inferior to the others and be looked down upon. (Chave 604) 9. Steinberg’s experience of viewing Les Demoiselles is that it’s almost as close as having sexual intercourse. It shows a connection from the outside world and into the body that is of a sexual nature. Bois however views the painting as different in that he sees the demoiselles gaze as if robbing people of the desire to engage in any sexual act and therefore maybe leading to an end of such acts. They show like the women are ailing by how they poise in the picture. Chave however disagrees with all these statements as to her they look healthy however considering she is a woman, this somewhat protects her from contracting a disease if at all they are sick since she cannot engage in any sexual activity with them. 10. The artists declared enemy was women and undeclared enemy were the colored people. The shallow space of the cubist canvas shows the fear seen in the Western society. They fear the women becoming stronger and the people of color too, therefore shunning the masculinity that is present. They are afraid of the male no longer being in full control. 11. Picassos Les Demoiselles can be interpreted through a colonialists discourse in the falling or end of their power due to the social and moral regression coming up. Picasso’s vision differs from Matisse in that Matisse sees it as a safe masculine utopia whilst for Picasso it is a masculine dystopia that is deemed to be horrific that has with it some parts of black Africa. 12 The crouching figure in the lower right quadrant of the picture doesn’t show the females genitalia as expected by many. All it shows is the African-masked face. The fact that genitalia aren’t visible shows the other side of female sexuality. These are in terms of lesbianism or them being barren as it is perceived of most prostitutes by society (Chave 608). 13. When women started becoming hungry for more success and became aggressive in everything they did together with other African Americans, they are seen as female fatales. This is so as they use their charms to entangle their lovers’ and making them to be in difficult situations. Hence to some point the figures in African masks, as they portray the use of their seductiveness to get what it is they want, are a representation of female fatales. 14. Picasso turned away from his African and Spanish art type of inspiration to join that of Braque. The scholars would always devalue and demean the African art and thus it was best for the cubism to be known as a type of classic art. Prostitute corpses were used for anatomy and to help them have a better understanding of the female body. There was an urge to understand female sexuality since people believed that within it there was something so secret which had to be brought out into the open (Chave 609). All this revealed what women were made of and a better understanding of them and hence led to the retreat from raw nudity and African elements. 15. Chave agrees with Felix Fenons view that les demoiselles can be viewed just as a huge cartoon. This is so as it is funny how the African-masked women annoyingly looking at their prospective clients as the others in a collected manner look at how the men are waiting to be attended to. The manner in which the women change the men and the frequency too, is comical. Works Cited Chave, Anna C., “New encounters with Les Demoiselles dAvignon: Gender, race, and the Origins of Cubism,” The Art Bulletin, Vol. 76, No. 4 (Dec 1994), pp. 596-611. Read More