" Although primarily concerned with the art of form, Cubism was still secondarily an art of representation. .
Cubists have also attempted to establish the physical presence of the objects they're representing and the physical complexity of the structure of figures. In the Girl With A Mandolin, Picasso has dislocated the natural forms of the girl and reduced them to geometrical shapes that have been flattened out into rectangles or circle segments. However, sculptural configuration can be observed in the modeling of the breast, arms and head of the girl. In addition, the cast of shadows also emphasises this, as the figure of the girl is maintained and easily recognizable as she holds the guitar on a diagonal slant. This form is solid yet it is flattened and the flattening background has been applied to the whole space. This makes the figure seem further fragmented and enclosed within the shallow space, which also seems to create a lack of depth. .
By reducing all forms to simple plane shapes, it becomes possible to illustrate the interactions between subjects as their elements become interchangeable. As revealed in this painting, the form of the girl and the mandolin seem to be dismantled yet it affirms an associative relationship between one another as they are entwined together with the background as a whole. With the disintegration of old forms forges the creation of new forms from these fragments. The Girl with a Mandolin demonstrates the gentle brushwork of Picasso and his use of sandy tan colours and cool blue-greys as he composes a lyrical atmosphere, evoking the sensations drawn by the associations of the girl and the mandolin. .
According to Hope, Picasso held a "passionate and restless search for means to express volume moving in space" whilst "Braque seems to have been more concerned with the development of surface, of texture and of new relationships with reality." In the Violin and Palette, shapes are simply fragmented and shattered rather than eliminated.
