Pablo Picasso was born in Málaga, Spain in 1881 and died on April 8, 1973, in Mougins, France. Throughout his life Picasso created wondrous works that were recognized all over the world. Previous to his enormous success Picasso was an ordinary child like most. His father being a painter and art teacher provided him with the stepping stones toward his love for art. Overall Picasso was a poor student, but he had undeniable desire to draw, and as time went on, an undeniable talent. His father began to teach him how to draw/paint when he was 13 years old and soon surpassed the talents of his own father. As a result of his undeniable talents his lack of interest in academics increased. Later on his family moved to Spain where Picasso enrolled in a prestigious fine arts school, and his admission was certain. This was quite an accomplishment considering he was not of age to be accepted. Nonetheless he was, but his interest in the school also diminished because of the many rules that came along with attending. He was not a fan of following the crowd, so he decided to break free of the traditional institution, and hit the streets of Barcelona. This deviation from the classics continued as he attended and abandoned the Royal Academy of San Fernando. It was obvious that he could not submit to the ideas and teachings of these institutions. This realization led to his journey of experimentation and innovation of art.
The above painting is titled Girl before a mirror, created by Picasso in 1932. Girl Before a Mirror was painted during Picasso’s cubism period. Picasso was a co-creator of cubism, and it was given it’s name due to the obvious geometric shapes used to form the work. As a creation of the painter himself it is obvious that the form of painting was new, different, and experimental (words that very easily describe modernism). The painting depicts a woman known Picasso’s mistress, Marie Therese Walter. The woman is looking into a mirror at a distorted version of herself. The image of her outside of the mirror is more symmetrical than the one in the mirror. The mirror portion of the painting uses darker colors and shifts the shapes used in her other image.
Picasso was very much part of the modernist movement; which is an easy conclusion to come to considering his failure at traditional education. Cubism was his own creation and in no doubt new and experimental in his day and age. Traditional art was known to reflect things as they were. If someone were to paint a tree then the tree would have to be painted exactly how it looked in nature. The modernist movement changed that ideal. The purpose was to create a different image of the world; which is definitely seen in Girl before a mirror.
I encountered this work while at the Museum of Modern Art and what truly drew me to it was the style of painting. The use of the shapes and the eccentric colors made it stand out from many other works on display. You could make out the image even though it was not painted exactly how it would have looked in real life. If there were any questions I had about this work it would have been “what does it mean?”. But while doing my research I encountered many different interpretations. One of them being that the woman was terribly insecure and as she looked into the mirror she saw all her flaws. In relation to this I read up that Marie Therese Walter killed herself shortly after Picasso’s death. It is possible that this was due to a broken heart, but I choose to believe it was because she no longer had anyone to find beauty in her flaws.
I agree with you that the modernist movement changed the ideal. I believe that the image in the mirror is her imagination of how she thinks her body look like. She false to face her real body, instead, she imaged one.
That is a very different method of painting. The use of cubes and lines to depict the human body is fascinating. It is interesting to learn about the different interpretations of the picture. A mirror is a powerful thing even though it simply shows one the reflection of itself, and I think that this is what this painting could be trying to depict.
Rigo, You have chosen such a fascinating painting! I think that Picasso, like many modernist artists, is interested in the whole idea of “seeing.” Cubism is, among other things, an attempt to provide a MORE faithful rendering of what happens when we actually see things than the more static images of conventional realistic art! What I like here is that we are looking at the painting, the woman in the portrait appears to be looking both at us and at her image in the mirror, and similarly, the mirror image is also looking both at us and back at the woman, so we are reminded of the subjectivity of the gaze and of the fact that a mirror image is not the same as the thing itself, right? And then of course, there’s also the complex psychological element of what happens when a woman looks in the mirror. Picasso was a real womanizer; this painting also reminds me of the idea of women existing to satisfy the male gaze, but also being harsh critics of their own images.