GUERNICA
was created by Picasso to express his outrage over the Nazi bombing of the Basque city in northern Spain, ordered by General Franco. Since then, this monumental black-and-white canvas has become an international symbol of genocide committed during wartime
is a pictorial condemnation of a cold-blooded, faceless massacre of innocent people
It is one of the most famous anti-war paintings (Rockfeller + Colin Powell)
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Guernica, oil on canvas
cm 351 x 782
Commissioned by the Republican government of Spain for the Spanish pavillion at the Paris World
Fair
NOW: Madrid,
Museo Nacional
Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
The scene depicted in Guernica is a room full of moving, screaming and dying adults, children and animals. Most of the individual images are also symbols.
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■ It should be read from right to left. Why?
■ At the extreme right I can see …… arms …. flames
■ On her left I can see… who is …… and holding a ….
■ On her left, below her, I can see… her breasts exposed
■ At the bottom I can see …
■ At the top I can see… and it looks like a camera flash and a huge …..
■ In the centre I can see … underneath its hoofs there is …. who is holding a ….
and a ….
■ On the left I can see a ….
■ On the extreme left I can see …. that stands over a wailing woman with a dead
child …
SYMBOLS
The horse = innocent people. The horse is whinnying in agony from a terrible injury in its side. Underneath the horse are the shattered remnants of the corpse of a dead soldier.
The dove = peace; part of its body forms a light-emitting crack in the wall = hope.
The open-mouthed woman = horrified observer. In her hand she holds a lighted lamp.
The dead soldier = martyrdom (broken sword + flower + on the palm of his other hand signs of the stigmata of Christ are visible, indicating martyrdom).
Another confused woman moves from the right towards the light in the centre = dazed victim.
The blazing light = incendiary bombs that fell on the town, which is also reminiscent of the bare bulb in a prison cell (torture) + it is the shape of an eye of a witness (God?)
On the extreme right of the room, a figure screams in agony as it is engulfed by flames = innocent victim.
The woman with the dead child in her arms = the suffering of women in war
The knife-points in place of the tongues of the bull, horse and wailing woman = the sharpness of their pain.
In addition, two supposedly 'concealed images' have been identified: a human skull whose shape is formed by the nostrils and upper teeth of the horse; and the skull-like head of another bull formed by the angle of its front leg.
USE OF COLOURS
It looks like a black-and-white photograph.
■ Can you imagine why Picasso wanted to achieve such an effect?
The night-time colour scheme adds a sense of panic and terror.
A photograph refers to a REAL event; Picasso was influenced by a photo he saw in a newspaper; the setting/time is ‘night’
It is painted in monochrome, using a palette of grey, black, and white, perhaps to reproduce a photographic realism.