Photo Blog 2

Pablo Picasso

Girl Before A Mirror, 1932

GESTALT THEORY: 

The use of saturated colors and shapes allows the viewer to create a visual image through stimulation of what they are seeing to create a coherent image that they understand through the Gestalt Theory. In this piece titled, Girl Before A Mirror created by Pablo Picasso you can see a woman looking at herself in the mirror. The person standing in front of the mirror is self-conscious about how she feels about herself as she gazes at a person who is slimmer distorted version of herself. Picasso shows this message through the use of proximity, which is the use of shapes placed closely together that make up a group. The proximity is shown through the use of abstract shapes and bold lines that create two different figures side by side looking at each other through the mirror split between the two different interpretations of figures seen by the viewer. When looking at the two figures the use of similar shapes show some similarities. Similarities are when the eye perceives objects that look similar to each other as a group or pattern. In this piece, Picasso purposely used similar shapes to show that the woman is looking at a distorted version herself by using similar colors and patterns such as, the green found in both of their torsos and similar facial features that show the woman is looking at a version of herself that she wants to be. However, even though there are some similarities that can be visually seen between there are clear distinctions from the two figures. The use of warm colors saturated colors shows to the viewers that this woman is beautiful in her own way and that she should accept the way she appears. However, the use of colder and a distorted face shows how the woman's self-conscious wants her to appear. This can be shown through continuation. Continuation is defined as the clear continuous movement, and as the viewers we prefer viewing a piece where the lines are connected and as-well as continuous figures. In this piece Picasso's use of distinct and bold lines show that the two figures are connected through the mirror. The figure on the left is gazing upon herself and realizing that she will never be able to achieve looking beautiful or feeling confident and you can see this cold stare of the two figures eyes as they interlock with each other. The figure on the right's distorted and cold facial features show the woman's self-conscious as it consumes her. In conclusion, the use of the Gestalt theory to analyze this artwork allows the viewer to study an image through the use of lines, color, movement, depth and more that allows the viewer to understand the central idea behind an image coherently.