The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) has an exceptional collection of works by Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), including fifty-five paintings spanning his prolific career. Of these, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) is often celebrated as a cornerstone of modernism. Described as the "core of Picasso's laboratory" by the French writer and poet André Breton (Rubin, Studies in Modern Art 3, p. 177), the work jolted the imagination of Picasso's contemporaries and generations of artists since. This crucial milestone in the development of modern art has remained an iconic fixture in MoMA's collection since its acquisition in 1939.

Pictured at top:
Pablo Picasso. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. 1907. Oil on canvas, 8' x 7' 8" (243.9 x 233.7 cm). Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest. © 2003 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York