1.16: Beauty -- Les Demoiselles d'Avignon

My favorite painting in the entire world is a Picasso. The original is huge -- it covers an entire, huge wall at MOMA. I've seen it twice in my life. Once was my freshman year in high school, and I don't know that it even registered with me. The second time was on a trip with NGS a few years back, and I sat and stared at it for a very, very long time.

The first time I actually remember looking at the painting was online in 1998. I was taking a Creative Writing course, and we had to find a painting to inspire our writing. I had no idea what to choose, but I was in that stage of life where you just have to be different, so I made sure to not pick the "normal" paintings. Lo and behold, I stumbled upon Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, wrote a short poem about beauty, and was hooked forever by this gorgeous painting.

Now, I have a print of this painting in my living room, and I could have taken a picture of it, but I chose to instead use the picture that I took at the MOMA. You can look up the background of the painting , but basically Picasso painted a group of prostitutes around a bowl of fruit. But he stole this idea of African masks from one of his friends and included them in the painting. It also is the very first Cubist painting. And it's all naked people, which is fun.

I love that these women are beautiful, but not conventionally so. This painting is pretty amazing. 

What did NGS say about beauty? Let me guess -- it's just a picture of her face.