Where to See Les Demoiselles d'Avignon in New York

Pablo Picasso completed this Les Demoiselles d'Avignon in 1907, shattering centuries of artistic convention. Five nude women stare confrontationally at the viewer. Their bodies are fractured into angular planes. Two figures on the right wear mask-like faces inspired by African sculpture.

The painting shocked even Picasso's closest friends. Matisse thought it was a hoax. Braque said it made him feel like he'd been drinking gasoline. Picasso kept it rolled up in his studio for years. It wasn't publicly exhibited until 1916. Today it's considered the proto-Cubist work that launched modern art. The title refers to a brothel on Carrer d'Avinyó in Barcelona. It hangs in MoMA.

The painting broke with Renaissance perspective and idealized beauty. Its angular forms and African-influenced masks launched Cubism and changed the course of modern art forever.

The French title means 'The Young Women of Avignon'. It refers to Carrer d'Avinyó, a street in Barcelona known for prostitution. The figures are sex workers in a brothel.

Picasso saw African and Iberian masks at the Trocadéro museum in Paris. Their stylized, geometric forms influenced the two right-hand figures, connecting modern art to 'primitive' sources.

Picasso shattered conventional perspective by showing five female figures from multiple viewpoints simultaneously. The two right-side faces were inspired by African masks. The angular, fractured forms broke every rule of traditional figure painting and opened the door to Cubism.

It's at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. Picasso painted it in 1907 but kept it hidden for years. Even his close friends were shocked. Matisse thought it was a joke. Braque said looking at it was like 'drinking kerosene.' It wasn't publicly exhibited until 1916.

The painting broke with Renaissance perspective and idealized beauty. Its angular forms and African-influenced masks launched Cubism and changed the course of modern art forever.

The French title means 'The Young Women of Avignon'. It refers to Carrer d'Avinyó, a street in Barcelona known for prostitution. The figures are sex workers in a brothel.

Picasso saw African and Iberian masks at the Trocadéro museum in Paris. Their stylized, geometric forms influenced the two right-hand figures, connecting modern art to 'primitive' sources.

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