Picasso's Les Demoiselles DAvignon and de Kooning's Woman Essay

Picasso's Les Demoiselles DAvignon and de Kooning's Woman - Essay Example The title refers to the so-called Maisons D`Avignon, â€Å"the houses of pleasure in Avignon Street in Barcelona†. The painting nevertheless faced rejection from his close friends and family, because of its nakedness and carnality. This art was a good example of the African influence on modern European art. Many art historians have noticed the striking resemblance between certain African mask style and the mask-like faces of the five women. African art was used in this context, either as visual evidence for the spread of cultural traits from innovative centers, or as evidence for the social evolution of cultures; from groups which were capable of natural representation, to those which had presumably graduated to the mastery of geometric stylization and abstract forms.Picasso had found a source for a new, non-naturalistic way of representing the world and it blocks the real features of a woman. In this art, a woman is a significant symbol; Picasso represents her as a desecrated icon already torn into bits, and reveals more of rock foundation of sexiest anti-human and celebrates the control of a woman by man.Willem De Kooning was a painter and sculptor of Dutch birth. He was a leading figure in the abstract expression. His work is characterized by an â€Å"inherent stylelessness, resulting from the constant parallel exploration of divergent themes and techniques† (Marter 44). For two years, he worked on his art the woman 1 (1950-52, in New York), â€Å"an image which has become a totem and icon of the times†.