Girl before a mirror interpretation

For this third writing assignment, you will need to make sure you have read chapters 4 & 5 (pages 77 thru 139) of the 10th edition of the "Living With Art" textbook.

After reading chapters 4 and 5 of the "Living With Art" textbook, you should be able to carefully look at Pablo Picasso's oil painting "Girl Before A Mirror" (shown above) and evaluate how some of the Visual Elements of Art (such as: line, shape & mass, light, color, value, texture & pattern, space, time & motion) and the Principles of Organization (such as: unity & variety, balance, emphasis & subordination, scale & proportion, rhythm & repetition) are being used in the painting. Don't feel you have to address all of the Visual Elements of Art and Principles of Organization. You should be addressing at least three Visual Elements of Art and three Principles of Organization in your paper.

For this writing assignment, I would like you to look carefully at "Girl Before A Mirror" on pages 138 - 139 of the 10th edition"Living With Art" textbook and write a page and a half or longer paper evaluating how some of the Visual Elements of Art and Principles of Organization are used (employed) in the painting.

For example, if you addressed BALANCE, what type of balance is being used? Is it: symmetrical balance, or asymmetrical balance, or radial balance? How do you know which balance is used in the painting? If you addressed SHAPE in your paper, what types of shapes are used? Are they organic shapes or geometric shapes? What specific geometric shapes are used? If you addressed LINE, what types of Lines are used? Are they curvilinear lines, contour lines, diagonal lines, horizontal and vertical lines, etc? If you addressed COLOR, what specific color schemes are used? Is there Analogous Colors, or Primary Colors, or Tertiary colors, etc? If you were to address RHYTHM & REPETITION, what is being repeated in the painting to give the entire work a sense of rhythm and unity? These are the types of questions you should be addressing as you write your paper.

Also, in the first paragraph of your paper, you should have a "thesis statement" sentence which clearly tells me which specific Visual Elements of Art and Principles of Organization you will discuss in your paper. The following is an example of a thesis statement: "Pablo Picasso's painting "Girl Before A Mirror" employs a number of Visual Elements of Art and Principles of Organization, such as: Line, shape, color, texture, balance, unity and rhythm and repetition." A statement like this clearly tells me as the reader of your paper which specific Visual Elements of Art and Principles of Organization the writer will address in his/her paper.