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Pablo Picasso Guernica Essay

Decent Essays

In 1936, the Spanish Republican government asked Pablo Picasso, the popular Spanish painter, to create a piece for the Paris World’s Fair in 1937. Picasso created the painting “Guernica” with an underlying political theme that outlined the recent events of the Spanish Civil War, in which he never explicitly painted for social/civic interests prior to “Guernica”. The celebration of the Paris World Fair was aimed for technological expansion, but the painting didn’t follow the same aspirations as the exposition.

The painting lies at its overwhelming size of 11.5 feet tall by 25.5 feet wide. Some viewers describe the paintings emotional intensity derives from the vast capacity, causing the feeling that it submerges the viewer in the devastating depictions and illustrations of war. Having similarities to the vastness of European paintings of the time, “Guernica” also contrasts and expresses a different message of most artworks created in the era by opposing the desire for war, instead of elevating nationalistic ideals and wanting the victory of war.

The city in which the painting describes exists in the North of Spain, primarily in the Basque country. Nationalist advocates for the Spanish Civil War describe Guernica as the center for culture for the Basque country. With strong relevance of Republican forces of the war, the city was targeted by the …show more content…

With the simplicity of the palate, it could be interpreted that the painting is meant to reflect newspaper and magazines that often glorified and embellished victories of battles, and ignores the deaths that are behind such actions. The intensity of the painting is furthered by the sharp shift in design, varying from black, white, and gray, that creates the faces and bodies of the humans and animals. The embodiment of newsprint, contrast of shades, and enlarged size allow the kinetic energy of the painting to almost embody the war

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