Africa And the Birth Of Modern Art: A Note On Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

Tue, 16 Jun 2026 05:27:44 +0000

I have felt my strongest artistic emotions when suddenly confronted with the sublime beauty of sculptures executed by the anonymous artists of Africa. These works of a religious, passionate, and rigorously logical art are the most powerful and most beautiful things the human imagination has ever produced. I hasten to add that, nevertheless, I detest exoticism.
— Pablo Picasso

African Art? Never heard of it.
—Pablo Picasso

Originally posted at the Literary Movements // Manifesto to the Millennium

Ismail Bala on Class Letters

Africa And the Birth Of Modern Art: A Note On Pablo Picasso’s *Les Demoiselles d’Avignon*

Africa And the Birth Of Modern Art: A Note On Pablo Picasso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon