When a young Pablo Picasso finally revealed his brazen 1906-07 painting of nude young women to friends at his ramshackle Paris studio, it was reviled by all but the poets. Initially taken aback, poets Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, & André Salmon lightheartedly christened it The Philosophical Brothel.
Come 1916, Salmon produced the daring tableau's Paris début. Though chastely rechristened Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, its uncanny nudes scandalized the City of Light. Eight years later, poet André Breton coaxed Picasso into finally selling it. Today, the monumental Demoiselles draws crowds at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
My first encounter with Les Demoiselles d'Avignon drew a complete blank. Its five larger-than-life nudes stared me down.
Years passed. Time & again I stood before the Demoiselles silently demanding right understanding. One cold, rainy, New York weeknight I was its only caller when suddenly one Demoiselle sprang to life. She flashed the charged emotions of my then-lover as our hook-up dawned.
Researching that seductive painting then, it stood out that Picasso avoided titling or explaining his artworks. It also stood out that Picasso wrote just one cryptic mention of the Demoiselles, in his arch 1941 play Desire Caught By The Tail, penned soon after the painting attained MoMA's Permanent Collection.
Art history interprets this “brothel” scene based on its storied titles, hearsay accounts & the artist's abandoned preliminary sketches. And critics define Cubism, which followed, in vaguely descriptive terms, though a suspected rationale begins with the Demoiselles.
Poetry & sculpture booted my life in the arts. Sculpting a human figure, I often strike the pose to know it inside out. When seized to strike the demoiselles' iconic poses, a further understanding took hold.
Picasso revered poets. While young & poor in Paris, he'd scrawled “rendezvous of poets” on his studio door. Decades later, he abandoned the visual arts for poetry, for two years, continuing his writing even after he began painting & sculpting again.
Sharing my Demoiselles revelation in verse became a natural homage. Eyes can glaze when I recite my discovery, yet when I also strike the painting's five poses all instantly grasp their logic in action.
Vogueing the Demoiselles for arts-loving friends in real time inspired my film NAKED PROBLEMS.
— A. R. Kara
Come 1916, Salmon produced the daring tableau's Paris début. Though chastely rechristened Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, its uncanny nudes scandalized the City of Light. Eight years later, poet André Breton coaxed Picasso into finally selling it. Today, the monumental Demoiselles draws crowds at New York's Museum of Modern Art (MoMA).
My first encounter with Les Demoiselles d'Avignon drew a complete blank. Its five larger-than-life nudes stared me down.
Years passed. Time & again I stood before the Demoiselles silently demanding right understanding. One cold, rainy, New York weeknight I was its only caller when suddenly one Demoiselle sprang to life. She flashed the charged emotions of my then-lover as our hook-up dawned.
Researching that seductive painting then, it stood out that Picasso avoided titling or explaining his artworks. It also stood out that Picasso wrote just one cryptic mention of the Demoiselles, in his arch 1941 play Desire Caught By The Tail, penned soon after the painting attained MoMA's Permanent Collection.
Art history interprets this “brothel” scene based on its storied titles, hearsay accounts & the artist's abandoned preliminary sketches. And critics define Cubism, which followed, in vaguely descriptive terms, though a suspected rationale begins with the Demoiselles.
Poetry & sculpture booted my life in the arts. Sculpting a human figure, I often strike the pose to know it inside out. When seized to strike the demoiselles' iconic poses, a further understanding took hold.
Picasso revered poets. While young & poor in Paris, he'd scrawled “rendezvous of poets” on his studio door. Decades later, he abandoned the visual arts for poetry, for two years, continuing his writing even after he began painting & sculpting again.
Sharing my Demoiselles revelation in verse became a natural homage. Eyes can glaze when I recite my discovery, yet when I also strike the painting's five poses all instantly grasp their logic in action.
Vogueing the Demoiselles for arts-loving friends in real time inspired my film NAKED PROBLEMS.
— A. R. Kara