1937 Oil Painting: Guernica By Pablo Picasso

Guernica is monochromatic to make its imagery more powerful. Lack of color keeps the viewer focused on the subject matter at hand, as well as keeping the mural cold, which agrees with its general theme of injustice in war. Also, Picasso’s flat imagery does not distract the viewer from concentrating on imagery. The viewer is given no other choice than to concentrate on the subject matter of Guernica and ponder it’s meaning. The flat, grayscale images generalize the imagery and contribute to the general theme of unnecessary suffering and tragedy.

“Guernica” is one of the most well-known paintings in the world. It was painted by Pablo Picasso in 1937. The painting itself measures 11ftx 26.5ft. “Guernica” depicts the bombing of the Spanish town of Guernica during the Spanish civil war. The whole thing is done in a cubist style not surprising since Picasso is known for his cubism. In the painting there are people and animals alike all of them in pain and or suffering. “Guernica” is also filled with symbolism that Picasso incorporated into it, and hidden messages. The painting is also colorless it only uses black, white and, gray.

Pablo Picasso Guerrinca's painting was painted in 1937 in a reaction to the Spanish Civil War bombing of the small Basque village in Spain. During the years of the Spanish Civil War, Hitler and Mussolini aided Spanish General Francisco Franco with artillery, airplanes, and tanks. Often soldiers would test firearm weapons on people of small towns in Spain. On April 27, 1937, the small Basque village has been bombed by German soldiers due to its population which was considered intimidating. The outcome of the bomb lasted for more than two hours with outbursting flames, thousands of people perishing, and others becoming wounded; meanwhile, more soldiers began to fire guns on the ground. Picasso read the what had happened in Guernica in a French

Prior to the bombing of Guernica, Picasso was in the process of creating another piece of art for the Paris Exhibition, but after hearing the horrific news about the bombing of Guernica, Picasso changed his course, and started working on a new mural titled “Guernica.” Guernica was ordered by the Republic of Spain. Picasso’s painting demonstrates his interpretation of the

The echo of war resonates in the air of the countries and the hearts of the people it has affected even years after it subsides. When Pablo Picasso created the larger-than-life mural Guernica, it becomes rightly apparent that Picasso wanted it to impact the people so as to gain more support and sympathy for the Spanish Republican cause, but I am not exactly sure if he realized how relatable this painting would be for all of the wars of the future that would follow after World War II. Viewing the painting from an inevitably political perspective, I find the picture to speak loudly to my own views on the necessity of war, particularly on innocent bystanders and civilians, which, from my understanding, relate greatly to Picasso’s own anti-war sentiments.

Incorporating his famous Cubist style, Pablo Picasso creates one of the most powerful anti-war, anti-fascist pieces of all time. What makes this so relevant even today is Picasso’s lack of direct reference to the actual events that happened at Guernica. Picasso is able to effortlessly have viewers constantly questioning if there are ever really any real winners in the aftermath of

For millenniums, art has been a way for mankind to visually and aesthetically communicate and convey their thoughts, emotions, and feelings amongst one another. Art is a tremendous tool that effectively allows individuals to express a certain idea or message onto a large, and sometimes global, platform—as in the case of artist Pablo Picasso. Through his artworks, Picasso gradually became both an influential artist and political figure within the 20th century, with his pieces touching on subjects such as suicide, death, and the destruction of war. An example of one of Picasso’s paintings that narrows in on a topic relating to the chaos and aftermath of war is called ‘Guernica’. Through its historical context, style and composition, and subject matter, ‘Guernica’, which arguably his most famous and well-known artwork, is an excellent exemplar that demonstrates art’s capacity for influencing and connecting to the minds and feelings of individuals, and

The painting Guernica by Pablo Picasso, is a devastating painting, that shows the cruelty and destruction brought to a country at war. This painting is visually stimulating, and extremely thought provoking, with its enormous size and symbolic caricatures. Picasso, not known for producing political art expresses himself and the lives lost in Guernica through this painting.

In Pablo Picasso’s painting Guernica, which he created in response to the bombing of Guernica, Spain, in the midst of the Spanish Civil War, he portrays the tragedy of war. In the painting, there is a man on the left with his arms reaching up and his head looking towards the sky. There is also a woman on the left of the painting looking up with a look of terror on her face. These two seem to be innocent civilians whose lives have been changed forever by the terrible effects of the bombing. In the top-middle of the painting there is a light fixture of sorts that looks like the Sun with a light bulb inside of it. There are also spikes coming out of the light. I think the light itself symbolizes a bomb and the spikes are the shrapnel that gets

Emphasizing some of aspects and areas in Picasso’s painting, he uses of dark and pale grey colors. The painting is also divided into two groups, the left side is given to the mockery civilians while on the right side is for a large number of crowd soldiers. Sad to say, that the artwork poses strong reflections are found in the strengths and power between the two said

Picasso’s Guernica will be perceived as “violent, dynamic, vital, disturbing” (Walton 1970, 347). But perceived as belonging to the category of “guernicas”—where guernicas are works with “surfaces with the colors and shapes of Picasso’s Guernica, but the surfaces are molded to protrude from the wall like relief maps of different kinds of terrain”. Picasso’s Guernica will be perceived not as violent and dynamic, but as “cold, stark, lifeless, or serene and restful, or perhaps bland, dull, boring”. (Walton 1970, 347). That Picasso’s Guernica can be perceived both as violent and dynamic and as not violent and not dynamic might be thought to imply that there is no fact of the matter whether it is violent and dynamic. But this implication holds

This painting helps show the artist, Pablo Picasso’s, frustration in the war in Guernica. Showing one overall message of the ‘suffering’, the suffering of innocent humans and animals alike. Featuring a bull in looks what to be shock, a women holding a dead child, pigeon, a dead soldier holding a flower (sign of hope), a horse in the centre whose body is overlapped and looks to be in images such as a skull, kneeling woman and on the far right a man begging to the sky (thought to be to the German planes to stop

Picasso was seeking to convey how devastating the Spanish Civil War was especially to the civilians. He shows the anguish the people in Spain had to endure throughout the war, both emotional and physical pain. In the painting, there is various people who appear to be in great pain and others dead. Guernica also conveyed how it affected not just a couple civilians but a clear majority of civilians as there is many who appeared to be in despair. The people of Spain had to suffer living in war zones and having their living spaces destroyed which shows how war brings agony to everyone around it not just soldiers and how people’s lives are destroyed like the mother who is holding her dead child must suffer with her baby’s death forever.

I expected to find out most great work of art on the Web but have no favorite. It is because I have been exposed only a small amount of time in appreciating works of art. Instead, I found one interesting work of art for me in my daughter’s art textbook,(1) and I would like to analyze it with concepts what I learned just before through Ricard's slide.(2) It is Guernica, 1937 by Pablo Picasso.(3)

Hitler supported Franco but artist like Picasso and Dahli supported the republicans. Then in 1937 a small city in Spain named Guernica was bombed and it caused it stir amongst artists. As a result of the bombing Picasso created his oil painting, Guernica, in 1937. This painting was a representation of what Picasso was probably reading in the newspaper while in Paris. Its monochromatic, black and white color scheme can be compared to a newspaper. The viewer can read the painter from left to right or vice versa. The painting uses symbolism like the bull to represent Spain and the horse falling apart represents dismemberment. Picasso depicts the horrors of the event as people flee from a burning building and a mother holding on to her dead child screams in agony. What made this piece important was Piccaso’s use of his cubist style to voice his political opinion. He made it clear which side he was on and the discontent he held for the misfortune his home faced. The painting was put on tour as a fundraising event that only charged a pair of boots for entry. These boots were then sent to republican soldiers. This was something Pablo Picasso had never done before making this work