MoMA Observation

 

 

Pablo Picasso

 Spanish, 1881-1973

“Ma Jolie” 1911-12

oil on canvas

 

At the first glance of the painting, the immediate feeling I got was confusion and sense of lost in the geometric shapes. I could not figure out what the painting is about as I always have trouble resonating with abstract paintings especially for cubism. Although I do feel that this painting have good aesthetics in the use of colors, lines and composition, I did find it a bit boring to look at at first since I did not know the meaning behind it.

Looking further into the painting, I started to dissect a few objects out of the chaos of shapes and lines: two hands strumming six guitar strings in the middle, a woman’s face hidden in a pointed rectangular shape in the top part, a instrument or a feet on the bottom right, perhaps two people expressed in simple lines in the middle left, and another person sitting depicted in more detail. As I looked more and more, I started to make more sense out of the painting, but questioned if I am seeing the “right thing”.

As I struggled to find out the literal meaning, and tried to make sense out of the painting, I questioned myself if the painting should be read in such a way; I got confused about if I should be trying to figure out something realistic out of something abstract. I wondered if anyone would be 100% sure of the reality in Picasso’s painting, so instead I tried to focus more on the lines, mood and sense of space the painting conveys.

The variety of lines, straight, crisp, curved, and fading, directs the movement of the eye, and constructs the abstract feeling of the painting. The use of neutral colors, making it flatter, further contributes to the abstraction. The decision of having the subject sit in the middle of the composition creates a focal point and emphasis on the figure, and the sense of space is created by different values of shading and highlights. The geometric shapes throughout the entire painting gives it a sense of unity, but also have a variety which makes it visually amusing. Furthermore, Picasso’s writing of the tile at the bottom embellish the abstraction of the painting, and incorporates pop culture into it in the attempt of making it similar to a poster.