Artists shocked and confronted audiences seeking the "avant-garde" in artistic movements such as Realism, Cubism and Abstract Expressionism. Realists, abandoning traditional themes and practices; Cubists and their subject matter, positioning, composition and primitivism; and the abstract expressionists, abandoning the conventional tools and methods of artistic creation. Examples of this are Edouard Manet with his Luncheon on the Grass, Pablo Picasso with his Les demoiselles D'avignon and Jackson Pollock with his Blue Poles (Number 11) each demonstrated their own methods in the pursuit of the avant-garde', shocking and confronting the audience while doing so. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay As a realist, Edouard Manet's "Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe," known as Breakfast on the Grass, conveys methods that show the abandonment of traditional themes and practices in pursuit of the avant-garde, which ultimately shock and put put the public to the test. Realists of the time had primarily depicted nude women as the "ideal woman", including mythological themes, along with highly articulated shading and shading techniques. Luncheon on the Grass demonstrates how realists had abandoned traditional themes by depicting inspiration from an older, more traditional piece, along with what the painted figures had been perceived to be like at the time, with a high regard for the genre. Manet had aimed to extend and reevaluate the possible subject matter of the paintings. With a remarkable amount of inspiration, Marcantonio Raimondi's "Judgment of Paris" engraving depicts in the lower right corner three figures similar in appearance to those in Manet's Luncheon on the Grass. It is a reworking that transformed such a mythological and traditional scene into a work of art that, at the time, had been considered vulgar, scandalous. Having a nude in a classical setting had been acceptable, but having a nude in a contemporary setting was considered vulgar and caused a public scandal, assailed by critics of the time. This also resulted in laughter at the lack of interaction between the figures. By having three figures, the two clothed males and the naked female figure, it was depicted as objectifying. In addition to this, there was a feminist theory in which the male gaze was illustrated as a way of representing women in the world only for the pleasure of the male viewer. The naked female figure facing the public was recognized as a known prostitute, Victorine Meurent. During the 1860s, it was known that wealthy men were associated with that type of women in society, yet it had been blatantly thrown in society's face, shocking and confronting the public. All the figures in this particular artwork have been flattened, using very little shading and shadowing in general. This was considered a very crude, crude and clumsy technique as it was painted in a way that only allowed the viewer to see the surface, not to look into the scene and what was around the figures. Technological advances (such as the camera and the collapsible paint tube) had also caused many artists of the time to reevaluate their practices, making changes to subjects, mediums, and practices. Furthermore, French realist Edouard Manet's "Le Dejeuner sur l'Herbe", despite being in pursuit of the "avant-garde", was considered a work that had abandoned traditional themes and practices, and was shocking and thought-provoking to audiences at the time . Cubist Pablo Picasso shocked and challenged the public in his pursuit of the avant-garde, as demonstrated by his cubist work "Les demoiselles D'avignon" primitivism, argumentsimmoral, positioning of figures and composition. The Cubists of the time did not shy away from their representation of the "modern world", brothels and prostitutes had been a common theme since realism and they had seen reality mainly from all angles, embedding an object in a web of context, abandoning perspective altogether. Primitivism is evident in "Les demoiselles D'avignon" as it is influenced by the art and artifacts of non-Western cultures. Originally, the initial sketches and drawings included two men and three women, this was later changed and now incorporates primitive masks on two of the women on the far right of the work. Picasso's work also expresses immoral topics, in the form of how women are positioned and how this is perceived, with battle-like behavior. Distinct compositional choices include having the areas they are painted in be two-dimensional, as the scene has a lack of depth. This causes the figures to be more prominent than their surroundings. "Les demoiselles D'avignon" shows primitivism through the African masks above the two figures on the right. Simplified and sharp, the faces of these figures appear menacing and dangerous, amplified by the primitive masks and adding to the positions that all women seem to have, with violence and power. Originally, the preliminary drawings of this work depicted the women as Iberian prostitutes, showing very strong Iberian characteristics. When the work moved from loose sketches to cubism, these characteristics learned. However, with the three women on the left displaying sharp, angular features, and the two women on the right displaying primitive African masks, the entire piece seems as if it were a battlefield, Iberian prostitutes clashing with "creatures" masquerades. The scene itself is presented in a very two-dimensional way, allowing the women to be seen clearly. The blue, white and brown background appears as if it were shattered glass, increasing the effect of danger and violence. These could also be depicted as tents from which women emerge and engage with the audience. Furthermore, "Les demoiselles D'avignon" by Pablo Picasso is a cubist work which, although pursuing the "avant-garde", aroused a comparison and shock towards the public due to the intense primitivism, the immoral subjects and the distinct compositional choices and , at the time was considered scandalous, disgusting, vulgar and crude. Jackson Pollock, as an abstract expressionist, shocked and challenged audiences in his pursuit of the "avant-garde", thanks to his "Blue Poles" artwork, showcasing how he had abandoned conventional tools and methods and allowed materials to "speak your own language". Pollock had abandoned conventional tools and methods, choosing to set aside brushes, the artist's paint and traditional composition, and then pour, drip, throw and paint the pool directly onto large canvases, placing them on the floor to allow for action painting. . He had exploited the 'accident', whilst maintaining control, as well as exploiting the effects of gravity to create layers of paint, using an 'all-over' paint composition to then allow the materials to 'speak their own language'. In "Blue Poles" Pollock had used rags and brushes and poured paint all over the canvas. The layers of paint are all evenly distributed across the canvas, and he has integrated the "poles" into the work by lacing them into the composition with layers of fine, dripped paint, primarily white, black and blue. This was done towards the end of completion. Layers of fine paint had been continuous throughout Pollock's work, however, the strong element of the vertical "poles" differs'.