This past Sunday I went to the MOMA with my family. Since my mom wasn't working, I decided to invite them to see Les Demoiselles D’Avignon with me. I had been to the MOMA before, but didn't really remember the experience since I was much younger, so it was like my first visit. 

At first I thought it was the entire gallery that I was suppose to see the entire gallery, so I started from the first painting and worked my way to Les Demoiselles D’Avignon. Although I have seen works of cubism before, I was still very confused. My sister and I would look at each picture and try to guess what the things were. When we would see a little piece of something we could recognize we would get very excited. Some of it like the table picture was very hard, while some like the woman with the guitar was more recognizable. I didn't really understand at all what was the point of this style of art except that it confused people and really made you question what you were looking at. 

Ma Jolie was one that really caught my eye. Even though I couldn't (and still can't) see the actual person, I seemed to be a painting of music itself. While music is heard not seen, I thought Picasso was trying to paint music, something that seems impossible, but why not try the impossible. In that case it would make a lot of sense that nothing was really distinguishable. 

After seeing half the gallery I ran into Les Demoiselles D’Avignon and realized that was the painting we were actually suppose to see. I was taken aback by this large picture. I mean the women being naked and staring at me with such a blank stare gave a creepy feeling. The pinkness of the women made me think of raw flesh. To add to that thought, the leg of one of the women even looked like it was a piece of meat, which was disturbing.

The most disturbing one for me was the woman sitting down. I thought she was sitting facing the viewer, with her legs that open. I found it to be simply vulgar and disturbing. I did not understand why Picasso would include something like that in his painting. I later saw thought the sketches in the reading that she was actually turned around and that was her backside, even though she was facing us.

It wasn't until class on Monday that everything I saw in this gallery began making sense. The idea that cubism portrays different angles all at once explained some of the distortion of the figures. It's still kind of complicated, but it is all beginning to make more sense.  

After that painting we continued to the rest of the museum. There was so much to see and each one brought out different feelings. I took some pictures, which I'll post up soon. 

It was a very fun trip. I'm glad I took my parents and sister because they don't take trips to museums too often and I know they enjoyed themselves.