History of African art, sculptures and artifacts owned by French collectors and galleries lent influence to the works of artists such as Amedeo Modigliani and Pablo Picasso, who were greatly influenced by African art and who borrowed much from African art in their work. The period between 1906 and 1909 was often referred to as Picasso’s “Negro” period. Picasso himself claimed to have had a “revelation” while viewing African art at the ethnographic museum at Palais du Trocadero, and this influenced his painting of “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” (May/July 1907). Though regarded as one of his early “Cubist” work, this painting displays two distinctly African figures and it is clearly an image derived from and inspired by African art.
Sexy black matador donned in green head wrap is the ‘truth’ containing the attacking albino bull (Picasso) while unveiling the light on Picasso’s work and its influences. The Horus eye in the center looking through the clouds sees and know it all, a reinforcement of the truth peeking out.
