Which painting by Pablo Picasso, created in 1907, shocked viewers with its innovative use of space and form?

• A. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
• B. Bone China
• C. Pantheon
• D. Fayum Portraits

Answer: (A)

This item tests how Picasso redefines space and form by showing multiple viewpoints at once. Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, painted in 1907, shocks viewers because it abandons the traditional single-point perspective and instead builds the image from interlocking, fractured planes. The figures sit and unfold across the picture plane in angular, almost sculptural facets, so depth is not conquered through shading or atmospheric space but through flat forms that imply volume. This radical shift makes the space feel compressed and ambiguous, as if you’re looking at the scene from several angles at once.

The painting also signals a move away from idealized figures toward a more raw, confrontational look—especially in the leftmost figures, whose mask-like faces reflect African and Iberian influences that further destabilize conventional representation. Taken together, the combination of fragmented planes, multiple viewpoints, and a new approach to form is what made the work so provocative in 1907, laying the groundwork for Cubism. The other titles are not the same Picasso work from that year, or refer to different subjects altogether.