2010: My rediscovery of Picasso During my second year I rediscovered Pablo Picasso 2

Picasso was also influenced by Cezanne. He begun to cut up his figures into geometric shapes, cones, spheres, cylinders and in clearly defined planes just like Cezanne used to do. In the painting, Picasso over highlighted the cutting up of the shapes with brightly colored lines that remind tribal scars on the faces of some African tribesmen. Indeed, the figures’ shapes in Picasso’s painting show the influence of three major styles: on the left, the flattening of the woman’s torso reminds Egyptian art; the noses of the two central figures are seen in profile whereas the rest of the facial characteristics are face on, something which reminds Iberian art and finally, the features of the woman in the right are reminiscent of masks of the Negro art.


Picasso, P. (1906) Les Demoiselles d’Avignon [Oil on canvas] Museum of Modern Art online [Online]. Available at: http://www.moma.org (Accessed: 14th February 2010).