Viewing Les Demoiselles d'Avignon a second time, after the class discussion, shed a whole new light on the piece. I, of course, had noticed the large size of the painting during my visit, but it was all the more daunting the second time around. Keeping in mind that the prostitutes in the work expected a tradeoff, something in return, and that the work wasn't going to let me look at it's beauty for free, my discomfort gained unexpected worth. It was my payment. I find this idea rather fascinating, that something inanimate has the right to demand an emotion back from you. I think it's something to add to the ever growing list of the meanings of art: a work that evokes an exchange between itself and the viewer. 

The positions of the women's bodies seemed to defy physics the first time around. The prostitute on the front right of the work was sitting, or crouching, with her body facing away from us, but staring straight at us at the same time. I spent time trying to figure out her exact position, in a logical way, but came up with no conclusions. After class however, the modernist style of the work explained the women's positions. Picasso posed the question "what if we could see someone from different angles at once?" and answered it with the young women in his painting. Granted, it's not as modernist as other artists, or even other works by him, but the style is very present in the mix. 

As I looked deeper into the background of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, I found that a photographer named Luis Gispert took a photograph titled Senoritas Suicidio in which 5 women reenact the poses seen in Picasso's work. Looking at them side by side really allows you to see the effectiveness of Picasso's style. The photograph, by hiding the women's eyes under water, doesn't elicit that same sense of discomfort that Picasso's painting does. Also, since it is clear that the photograph is of 5 nude women in water, it doesn't generate the same interest as Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. I felt like I was looking at a photo, rather than feeling like I had walked straight into a brothel and startled the women within it. Picasso's work is one of a kind, with no other work being able to impact the viewer quite as well.