Analysis Of Pablo Picasso's Girl Before A Mirror

When looking at Pablo Picasso’s “Girl Before a Mirror”, one can obviously make out a girl observing herself in front of a mirror. The woman is portrayed one way before the mirror and another way in her reflection. Picasso is obviously sending a message behind the meaning of his work. He also, more than likely, has a reason and story behind why he rendered the work of art. This message and story become useless when it is reproduced onto a computer screen, according to John Berger. In his Ways of Seeing, Berger explains how technology accompanied by today’s world has somewhat tainted the worth and overall beauty of experiencing art. One no longer has the ability to remove him or herself from reality or as Clive Bell would say, have an “aesthetic
If someone likes a pair of sneakers and that pair of sneakers is sketched to perfection and hung on a wall, the person will more than likely gravitate towards realizing the intricate stroke patterns of the artist while examining his or her infatuation with the sneaker in a new light. Berger says that “looking” and “seeing” are two extremely different words used “a bit loosely” (Berger 12). Most people often go to museums and galleries and just “look” at paintings of so much worth, value, and meaning instead of “seeing” the bigger picture. Seeing, to Berger, understands the intentions of the artist and some sort of respect. “People who respond immediately and surely to works of art… are often quite as incapable of talking sense about aesthetics”, meaning they concluded “seeing” too quickly, causing them to fail in appreciating the art (Bell 58). Despite their common views on respect towards understanding, Berger viewed everyone’s seeing capabilities as partially influenced by setting unlike Bell, who believes that their appreciation is based off of their personal respect and interest in whatever the object is in the work of art or how they can specifically relate to