Activity 1: Aesthetics- Subjective Critique

When I first saw this piece it made me angry. I have seen Pablo Picasso's other work and I think that he is a talented artist, he has this ability to paint beautifully yet chooses to create something as disgusting as this portrait. This portrait is just one big ugly mess. My main issue with this piece is the very apparent brush strokes, you can clearly see the base color of the canvas through the paint which makes the whole background look like one big sloppy mess. His color palette is also atrocious. He uses a nasty brownish-red in the background that looks disgusting and a strange mix of red-orange, green, and blue for the skin. The red-orange is very off-putting and doesn't compliment the green next to it and also feels out of place because the rest of the skin is painted with cool colors. None of the colors he uses are very vibrant, but are dull and lack depth. The only color that isn't dull is the harsh black that he uses, which creates some contrast in value but ends up flattening the piece even more. He also doesn't attempt to create any variation of shadows in this piece, which leaves the painting looking extremely flat and unappealing. The way he abstracts the subject is also very distasteful and inaccurate. The gigantic nose and lips give strange shapes to the face and the boxiness of the hair makes it look flat and lifeless. The subject is inaccurate because she is painted to look older. Picasso has given her breasts and developed facial features, this wouldn't normally bother me but in this case the subject, according to the title of the piece, is supposed to be a "young girl" which this painting in no way resembles. If I were to change this piece I would change almost everything about it. I would start by using a subject who looks more like a young girl and rendering her in a naturalistic way. I would incorporate different colors into the skin to make it more vibrant but still believable and use more attractive shades of blue and green in the clothing of the subject to incorporate some of the original color scheme into the piece. I would also create more depth in the piece by using value. I believe doing so will help me to create a more visually appealing work of art.