The Cubist Movement and Les Demoiselles dAvignon Essay

The Cubist Movement and Les Demoiselles dAvignon - Essay Example The essay "The Cubist Movement and Les Demoiselles d’Avignon" investigates the role of Pablo Picasso in the context of cubism. His focus on emotions was a reaction to the perfectionism of the photograph and the machine age and a justification for the continuation of the art of painting as an art form. The approach they took was to portray the realism of the subject by breaking the established rules of art in order to explore images or reflections of pure emotion. Lyotard describes this process as an attempt â€Å"to make visible that there is something which can be conceived and which can neither be seen nor made visible†. This â€Å"something that can be conceived but not seen nor made visible† is often referred to as the sublime, a quality of transcendent greatness â€Å"with which nothing else can be compared and which is beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement or imitation†. The presence of this sublime element, then, inspires the imaginatio n in a specific direction based on which elements remain visible or understandable. Its significance is in the way in which it brings attention to the uncertainty of meaning inherent in the work, such that no resolution makes itself apparent and the viewer is forced to come to an understanding of his or her own. This establishes a communication between the art, the artist and the viewer that goes beyond the image on the canvas and remains individual for each viewer. For artists of the Modernism, to achieve this sublime element meant to throw away the training.