11/16/2019 Guernica by Pablo Picasso
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Guernica by Pablo Picasso
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Courtesy of www.PabloPicasso.org
Probably Picasso's most famous work, Guernica is certainly the his most powerful political
statement, painted as an immediate reaction to the Nazi's devastating casual bombing
practice on the Basque town of Guernica during Spanish Civil War.
Guernica shows the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals,
particularly innocent civilians. This work has gained a monumental status, becoming a
perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, an anti-war symbol, and an embodiment of
peace. On completion Guernica was displayed around the world in a
ief tour, becoming
famous and widely acclaimed. This tour helped
ing the Spanish Civil War to the world's
attention.
This work is seen as an amalgmation of pastoral and epic styles. The discarding of colo
intensifis the drama, producing a reportage quality as in a photographic record. Guernica is
lue, black and white, 3.5 metre (11 ft) tall and 7.8 metre (25.6 ft) wide, a mural-size canvas
painted in oil. This painting can be seen in the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid.
Interpretations of Guernica vary widely and contradict one another. This extends, fo
example, to the mural's two dominant elements: the bull and the horse. Art historian Patricia
Failing said, "The bull and the horse are important characters in Spanish culture. Picasso
himself certainly used these characters to play many different roles over time. This has
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11/16/2019 Guernica by Pablo Picasso
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made the task of interpreting the specific meaning of the bull and the horse very tough.
Their relationship is a kind of ballet that was conceived in a variety of ways throughout
Picasso's career."
Some critics warn against trusting the political message in Guernica. For instance the
ampaging bull, a major motif of destruction here, has previouse figured, whether as a bull
or Minotaur, as Picasso' ego. However, in this instance the bull probably represents the
onslaught of Fascism. Picasso said it meant
utality and darkness, presumably reminiscent
of his prophetic. He also stated that the horse represented the people of Guernica.
Museum Photo of Gurnica
Guernica is a town in the province of Biscay in Basque Country. During the Spanish Civil
War, it was regarded as the northern bastion of the Republican resistance movement and
the epicenter of Basque culture, adding to its significance as a target.
The Republican forces were made up of assorted factions (Communists, Socialists,
Anarchists, to name a few) with wildly differing approaches to government and eventual
aims, but a common opposition to the Nationalists. The Nationalists, led by General
Francisco Franco, were also factionalized but to a lesser extent. They sought a return to the
golden days of Spain, based on law, order, and traditional Catholic family values.
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11/16/2019 Guernica by Pablo Picasso
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At about 16:30 on Monday, 26 April 1937, warplanes of the German Condor Legion,
commanded by Colonel Wolfram von Richthofen, bombed Guernica for about two hours.
Germany, at this time led by Hitler, had lent material support to the Nationalists and were
using the war as an opportunity to test out new weapons and tactics. Later, intense aerial
ombardment became a crucial preliminary step in the Blitzkrieg tactic.
Photo of Picasso working on Gurnica.
After the bombing, Picasso was made aware of what had gone on in his country of origin. At
the time, he was working on a mural for the Paris Exhibition to be held in the summer of
1937, commissioned by the Spanish Republican government. He deserted his original idea
and on 1 May 1937, began on Guernica. This captivated his imagination unlike his previous
idea, on which he had been working somewhat dispassionately, for a couple of months. It is
interesting to note, however, that at its unveiling at the Paris Exhibition that summer, it
garnered little attention. It would later attain its power as such a potent symbol of the
destruction of war on innocent lives.
Guernica, Picasso's most important political painting, has remained relevant as a work of
art and as a symbol of protest, and it kept the memory of the Basque town's nightmare
alive. While Picasso was living in Nazi-occupied Paris during World War II, one German
officer allegedly asked him, upon seeing a photo of Guernica in his apartment, "Did you do
that?" Picasso responded, "No, you did."
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Guernica is an icon of modern art, the Mona Lisa for our time. As Leonardo da Vinci
evoked a Renaissance ideal of serenity and self-control, Guernica should be seen as
Picasso's comment on what art can actually contribute towards the self-assertion that
liberates every human being and protects the individual against overwhelming forces such
as political crime, war, and death.
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Picasso, Guernica
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Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937, oil on canvas, 349 cm × 776 cm. (Museo Reina Sofia,
Madrid)
Antiwar icon
Much of the painting’s emotional power comes from its overwhelming size, approximately
eleven feet tall and twenty five feet wide. Guernica is not a painting you observe with spatial
detachment; it feels like it wraps around you, immerses you in its larger-than-life figures and
action. And although the size and multiple figures reference the long tradition of European
history paintings, this painting is different because it challenges rather than accepts the
notion of war as heroic. So why did Picasso paint it?
Commission
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Postcard of the International Exposition, Paris, 1937 (from a series of 20 detachable cards,
edited by H. Chipault)
Postcard of the International Exposition, Paris, 1937 (from a series of 20 detachable cards,
edited by H. Chipault)
In 1936, Picasso (who was Spanish) was asked by the newly elected Spanish Republican
government to paint an artwork for the Spanish Pavilion at the 1937 Paris World’s Fair. The
official theme of the Exposition was a cele
ation of modern technology. Yet Picasso painted
an overtly political painting, a subject in which he had shown little interest up to that time.
What had happened to inspire it?
Crimes against humanity: an act of wa
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Guernica in ruins, 1937, photograph (German Federal Archives, bild 183-H25224)
In 1936, a civil war began in Spain between the democratic Republican government and
fascist forces, led by General Francisco Franco, attempting to overthrow them. Picasso’s
painting is based on the events of April 27, 1937, when Hitler’s powerful German air force,
acting in support of Franco, bombed the village of Guernica in northern Spain, a city of no
strategic military value. It was history’s first aerial saturation bombing of a civilian
population. It was a cold-blooded training mission designed to test a new bombing tactic to
intimidate and te
orize the resistance. For over three hours, twenty five bombers dropped
100,000 pounds of explosive and incendiary bombs on the village, reducing it to ru
le.
Twenty more fighter planes strafed and killed defenseless civilians trying to flee. The
devastation was appalling: fires burned for three days, and seventy percent of the city was
destroyed. A third of the population, 1600 civilians, were wounded or killed.
Picasso hears the news
On May 1, 1937, news of the atrocity reached Paris. Eyewitness reports filled the front
pages of local and international newspapers. Picasso, sympathetic to the Republican
government of his homeland, was ho
ified by the reports of devastation and death.
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Guernica is his visual response, his memorial to the
utal massacre. After hundreds of
sketches, the painting was done in less than a month and then delivered to the Fair’s
Spanish Pavilion, where it became the central attraction. Accompanying it were
documentary films, newsreels and graphic photographs of fascist
utalities in the civil war.
Rather than the typical cele
ation of technology people expected to see at a world’s fair,
the entire Spanish Pavilion shocked the world into confronting the suffering of the Spanish
people.
Later, in the 1940s, when Paris was occupied by the Germans, a Nazi officer visited
Picasso’s studio. “Did you do that?” he is said to have asked Picasso while standing in front
of a photograph of the painting. “No,” Picasso replied, “you did.”
World travele
When the fair ended, the Spanish Republican forces sent Guernica on an international tou
to create awareness of the war and raise funds for Spanish refugees. It traveled the world
for 19 years and then was loaned for safekeeping to The Museum of Modern Art in New
York. Picasso refused to allow it to return to Spain until the country “enjoyed public liberties
and democratic institutions,” which finally occu
ed in 1981. Today the painting permanently
esides in the Reina Sofia, Spain’s national museum of modern art in Madrid.
What can we see?
This painting is not easy to decipher. Everywhere there seems to be death and dying. As
our eyes adjust to the frenetic action, figures begin to emerge. On the far left is a woman,
head back, screaming in pain and grief, holding the lifeless body of her dead child. This is
one of the most devastating and unforgettable images in the painting. To her right is the
head and partial body of a large white bull, the only unharmed and calm figure amidst the
chaos. Beneath her, a dead or wounded man with a severed arm and mutilated hand
clutches a
oken sword. Only his head and arms are visible; the rest of his body is
obscured by the overlapping and scattered parts of other figures. In the center stands a
te
ified horse, mouth open screaming in pain, its side pierced by a spear. On the right are
three more women. One rushes in, looking up at the stark light bulb at the top of the scene.
Another leans out of the window of a burning house, her long extended arm holding a lamp,
while the third woman appears trapped in the burning building, screaming in fear and ho
or.
All their faces are distorted in agony