From Intuition to Icon: Pablo Picasso and the Leap into Modern Abstraction

“Sometimes the birth of a work is a spontaneous and unpredictable event” (Picasso).

The master piece Demoiselles d’Avignon by Picasso is a crucial stepping stone in the birth of modern abstraction. At only 25 years old and after years of painting in a figurative style, Picasso abandoned all that he had known. In a new and robust style this painting championed form over content, altering reality into something way more geometric.

Picasso drew his first designs for what became Les Demoiselles d’Avignon in the winter of 1906-07. Intensively and consciously planning his design, his artistic intuition told him he was on to something. Soon the painting sent shock waves through the Paris art world. Its controversial and revolutionary new look led to his fellow artists being both impressed and repulsed.

This work shows, more than any other works by Picasso, the cognitive leaps his creative brain made and how art is about looking – really looking.

SPEAKER – MARISKA BEEKENKAMP WLADIMIROFF

Originally schooled as a psychologist in the Netherlands, Mariska Beekenkamp-Wladimiroff turned to the arts when starting a family in London. Specialising in the Dutch Golden Age of Art at the Courtauld Institute of Art, Mariska now delivers talks for a number of organisations, including her own company Art Historical London. Art Historical London offers art historical lectures, museum visits, courses, tours, travel and events from Amsterdam, London and New York, and since 2020 online.

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