Picasso, Pablo

Guerníca
is a painting by Picasso from 1937. The painting, measuring an enormous 3.49 m high and 7.76 m wide, depicts the bombing of Guernica (1937) during the Spanish Civil War.
Guernica is on display at the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

♦ Background
In the winter (January) of 1937, Picasso accepted a commission from the Republican government to create a painting for the Paris Expo. He had little inspiration during the first few months, producing no more than a few sketches.

Op On April 26, 1937, the Basque village of Guernica was bombed by German and Italian bombers. This was led by the fascist leader Francisco Franco, who intended to put an end to Republican resistance. Franco was one of the generals who served under Hitler. Countless innocent people were killed; there were more than 1,600 dead and 900 wounded.

It was the first terrorist bombing in Europe, followed later by Rotterdam, Coventry, and Dresden. Historians still dispute the exact number of fatalities. Guernica was largely destroyed.

Like many other artists of the time, Picasso was a staunch opponent of Franco. Their artistic spirit was severely threatened by his regime.

The Basques saw Guernica as their capital, so it was of great emotional value and was not even of strategic value to Franco. Picasso was furious and immediately began work on his large mural called "Guernica."

♦ Fun fact:
When Paris, where Picasso was living at the time, was occupied by the Germans in 1940, he received a visit one day from several German officers. They noticed the painting (Guernica) and asked Picasso, "Haben Sie das gemacht?" (Did you make this?), to which the young artist replied, "Nein, Sie" (No, you did).

With this moving work, Picasso openly protested against the Nazi bombing of the Basque city of Guernica in 1937. It is full of his personal symbolism for suffering and violence.

He wanted the painting to convey the chaos of a bombing raid when you look at it.
The background is also chaotic; there is no difference between inside and outside. People are running out of their houses in panic. There is a lot to see in the painting at once, for example, a horse rushing into a house in panic. On the right, someone is falling from the burning roof. A mother is crying over her dead child.

The painting is painted in lines and planes in black, white, and gray to express the war. It is not a realistic painting. Pablo Picasso tried to convey the feeling during the bombing, not what it looked like.

♦ Explanation
On the right, people flee a burning building from which a woman falls;
on the left, a crying mother holds her child. r kind vast The broken sword, the flower, the dove, the skull (in the horse's body), and the fallen soldier's crossed posture are symbols of war and death.

The bull is the symbol of cruelty and the horse that of the fear of the innocent.
Together, the tormented figures form a kind of collage.

Their silhouette, overexposed by a woman with a lamp and an eye with a light bulb as its pupil, stands out against the darkness.
The monochrome newspaper effect and the contrast between light and dark intensify the powerful impression.

♦ Interpretation and meaning
There are countless interpretations of this work of art, one of which is given here.
This interpretation is accepted by most as the most logical. Of course, it is impossible to say whether an interpretation is right or wrong, which is why it is called an interpretation.

Here, the bull is presented as a symbol of fascism, while the horse is more a sign of suffering, sorrow, and pain. The meaning is therefore not hard to find: fascism here leads to mourning and pain. The arm visible at the bottom left symbolizes heroic resistance against fascism and violence. There is not much to say about the grieving mother on the left and the three other characters on the right: they express pain and violence (cubist element).
They also express the chaos during the bombing, as can be seen from the many intersecting lines (especially in the center).

♦ Symbols:
- Flowers: symbolize, among other things, the transience of life
- Dove: carries the soul to the afterlife
- Lamp: symbolizes divine light and wisdomeid
- Eyes: symbolize the eyes of God, because the Bible says: "The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous.".
The Trinity is sometimes depicted as an eye in a triangle.

Source: Symbolism in Western art

Picasso, Pablo_Guernica

References

Art lijst

Schilderijen

Schilderijen en de dokter

Schilders

Historie lijst

Wetenswaardigheden lijst