The monumental painting by Pablo Picasso entitled "Guernica" reflects the tragic events of 1937, when several thousand civilians of the city of Guernica were killed by air bombs. The painting became one of the most famous works of the great artist and is undoubtedly one of the most vivid depictions of human suffering and pain caused by the horrors of war.
Prehistory of creation
April 26, 1937 was a fateful date for the inhabitants of Guernica, a city located in the northern part of Spain, in the territory of an autonomous community called the Basque Country. Guernica was destroyed under the blows of the ruthless German Condor Squadron. The city fell into ruins. As a result of the two-hour bombing, several thousand civilians were killed. At that time, most of the male population of the city was involved in the civil war, so mostly women and children were killed. On that day, the whole world recognized evil in its true manifestation.
Despite repeated statements about his political apathy, Pablo Picasso could not remain indifferent to the tragic event that took place in his homeland. At that time he was busy creating a canvas for the World Exhibition in Paris. Upon learning of the horror that shook his homeland, Picasso immediately leaves unfinished work and switches to work on a new canvas, which will later become one of the brightest and most poignant artistic and political statements in history.
The painting, which Picasso will call "Guernica", will be his natural reaction to the murder of innocent people. Horror, anger, chaos, misunderstanding, sorrow - he will try to embody all this in one of his most ambitious works. During this period, the theme and image of a bull, symbolizing power, death, war and chaos, prevailed in his work. The painting "Guernica" will be the culminating moment in the disclosure of this theme.
Photo chronicle of the creation of Guernica
Not long before the tragedy in Guernica, Pablo Picasso met a very talented Frenchwoman Dora Maar. As a professional photographer and artist, she was well aware of the value Guernica carries for Picasso himself and for future generations. It is Dora Maar who is the author of unique photographs, which capture each stage of Pablo Picasso's work on the painting. She also captured Picasso while working in a Paris workshop on the rue Grands-Augustins.
A giant canvas of 3, 5 by 7, 8 meters was painted by Picasso in record time. In the beginning, he managed to spend 12 hours a day at the easel. Picasso had long cherished the idea of creating something like this, and therefore the work on the picture went on so rapidly. The main images of the painting were already outlined in the first days, and it took the master less than a month to complete the work.
Looking through the work of Dora Maar, dedicated to Pablo Picasso and the creation of the canvas, you can see how focused his face is while painting the picture.
Description of the picture
The painting is done in black and white. Black and white are the opposition of life and death. Despite the simplicity - grimaces of horror and despair are conveyed by only a few features - each of the images is as emotional as possible. At first glance, it may seem that the picture is a chaotic image of distorted figures, but in fact its composition is precisely and strictly organized. Picasso very accurately and picturesquely conveys such emotions as anger, rage, fear, hopelessness. The people depicted on the canvas seem to be locked in an enclosed space. Unable to escape from the reality, which they have become prisoners by the will of fate, they agonize, experiencing unbearable suffering.
Everything that is presented on the canvas consists of thousands of small fragments. This art form was chosen by Picasso for a reason. Thus, he seeks to achieve the effect of depersonalization. The whole picture is built on associative links of artistic images. Despite the fact that each of the images itself carries a significant semantic load, there are no brightly marked accents, which helps the perception of the general idea of the picture.
If we look at the picture from left to right, the first is the image of an inconsolable mother with a dead baby in her arms. There are no pupils in the eyes of the child, and his arms and legs hang down like whips. The lifeless lips of a child will never again touch the mother's naked breast. The mother's gaze is turned upward, as if she were calling out to God. Desperate pleas for help burst from her mouth, and her tongue is like a tongue of flame.
A bull stands side by side with the inconsolable mother. He kind of rises above everything else. His look does not express emotions, compassion is alien to him. He looks to the side, towering arrogantly above the fallen, and his hooves trample the lifeless corpse of a man, in whose severed hand a broken sword is gripped. Picasso himself, commenting on the images of the bull and the horse, more than once stated that the bull is the personification of the indifference and stupidity of fascism, and the wounded horse, convulsing, symbolizes the innocent victims of Guernica.
To the right of the horse, Picasso depicted two women. One of them bursts into this space from somewhere outside. In her hands is a burning candle, a symbol of hope and salvation. She tries to bring light into a room full of terror and destruction. The second female image rises from her knees. The face of this woman is directed towards the light. The faces of these two female images are undistorted and full of determination.
On the right, the painting depicts the image of an agonizing man. He is still alive, but already half consumed by something terrible.
Above all this rises a lamp under a lampshade of flames. It enhances the feeling of unreality of what is happening.
There are no exploding bombs or destroyed buildings in the picture. Only scattered tongues of flame testify to fire. All the horror depicted on the canvas will become an anticipation of the Second World War, from which the whole world will shudder a little later.
The cultural significance of the painting
"Guernica" by Picasso has become one of the most striking works of art, exposing the evil and meaninglessness of fascism. The monumental canvas will forever remain one of the most emotionally colored anti-war symbols. This painting represents war in its broadest sense of the word. It is difficult to find in it a reference to any particular event or place, but it unmistakably guesses the feelings of people who have suffered in one way or another from the war. Be it those who died or those who lost loved ones in the war. Picasso's black and white canvas reflects a world disfigured by war. This is a world in which the last remnants of life are agonized in death throes. It is a world in which suffering and indifference go side by side.
There are many different interpretations of Guernica. But all of them are united by the same perception of the atmosphere of the canvas. This is constant horror, despair, torment and despair. But despite the gloom, Picasso leaves the heroes of the picture a little hope in the form of two still living people who illuminate all this chaos with their determination to resist the stupid and soulless force that has forever disfigured and disfigured their world. Picasso himself once said that "the light in the picture is the world towards which every living creature will always strive."
In addition to Picasso's paintings, the tragic events of 1937 are reflected in graffiti, a copy of the work of Pablo Picasso, as well as a monument to the famous journalist George Steer, who visited the city a few hours after the airstrike and became the author of one of the first articles about Guernica. The article has been reprinted all over the world and, according to some sources, served as inspiration for Pablo Picasso. Another no less vivid reminder of those events is the "Peace Monument" by the sculptor Eduardo Chilida and the gloomy statue of the girl "Guernica" by the French sculptor Rene Ische. The original plaster form of the latter is in the Fabre Museum in Montpellier.
