Assignment 2 Evaluating The Visual Elements of Art & Principles of Organization in Pablo Picasso’s painting “Girl Before A Mirror. ” For this second assignment, you will need to make sure you have read chapters 4 & 5 (pages 75 thru 137) of the 9th edition of the “Living With Art” textbook. This topic will also be covered in class during the 4th or 5th week of class.
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 134 – 137 of the 9th 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. In your writing, please do not spend the majority of the paper discussing the CONTENT (i. . what the subject matter is in the artwork and how it is being communicated) of the painting. Focus entirely on the Visual Elements of Art and Principles of Organization. Please do not copy the information about this painting directly from your textbook. Put the information in your own words, and perhaps even find additional information about Picasso’s “Girl Before A Mirror. ” Please be mindful of spelling, grammar and complete sentence and paragraph structure. No double-spacing, and please only use 12 point type.
