Final answer:
Pablo Picasso was influenced by African sculpture in his painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, which enabled him to experiment with angular lines, cubic shapes, and mask-like faces, heralding a new direction in modern art.
Step-by-step explanation:
In Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Pablo Picasso draws influence from African sculpture, allowing him to explore new forms of expression that diverged from traditional Western art. Picasso's exposure to African art, particularly when he visited the ethnographic museum at Palais du Trocadéro in 1907, led to a stylistic transformation in his work, culminating in this painting. The angular lines, cubic shapes, and mask-like facial features reflect this inspiration and underscore the painting's place as a bridge between Picasso's African Period and his pioneering work in Cubism.
The two figures on the right of the composition are the most striking examples of this influence, with their faces resembling African masks. This departure from realistic representation to a more abstract form was a significant development in art, and it not only influenced the trajectory of Picasso's own art but also had a profound impact on the development of modern art more broadly.
While the initial reception of Les Demoiselles d'Avignon was largely negative, with even his friend Georges Braque taken aback by its radical nature, the painting is now recognized as a seminal work in the history of art. It exemplifies the influence of primitivism and poses a direct challenge to traditional artistic norms, breaking new ground for the experimentation that would characterize much of twentieth-century art.