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Larger Image |
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Title |
Guernica. |
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Creator |
Picasso, Pablo (Spanish painter, sculptor, and printmaker, 1881-1973)
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Date |
1937 |
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Cultural Context |
Spanish
European
Western European |
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Style/Period |
Cubist
Analytical Cubist
Synthetic Cubist
Surrealist
Modern (styles and periods)
Abstract (fine arts style) |
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Subject |
Abstract paintings
Abstract works
Civil wars
War
Politics & government
Political issues
Dictators
Nazis
Fascism
Civilization
Bombings
Military tactics
War destruction & pillage
Death
Dismemberment
Body parts
Despair
Distress
Grief
Infants
Children
Women
Mothers
Families
Soldiers
Military personnel
Men
Heads (Anatomy)
Animals
Horses
Supernatural beings
Bulls
Cattle
Horns (Animal)
Lamps
Light
Light bulbs |
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Description |
"In this monumental work of 1937, Guernica, Picasso combined Analytic and Synthetic Cubist forms with several traditional motifs, juxtaposing them in a new Surrealist way. The combination serves the political message of the painting - namely, Picasso's powerful protest against the brutality of war and tyranny. […] From 1936 to 1939, there was a civil war between Spanish Republicans and the Fascist army of General Franco. In April 1937, Franco's Nazi allies carried out saturation bombing over the town of Guernica. Picasso painted Guernica to protest this atrocity. He loaned it to New York's Museum of Modern Art, stipulating that it remain there until democracy was restored in Spain. In 1981, Guernica was returned to Madrid. […] Consistent with its theme of death and dying, the painting is nearly devoid of color, although there is considerable tonal variation within the range of black to white. The absence of color enhances the journalistic quality of the painting, relating it to the news accounts of the bombing it protests. […] Guernica is divided into three sections - a central triangle with an approximate rectangle on either side. The base of the triangle extends from the arm of the dismembered and decapitated soldier at the left to the foot of the running woman at the right. The dying horse represents the death of civilization, though it may be rescued by the woman with a lamp (Liberty) rushing toward it. Another expression of hope, as well as of the light of reason, appears in the motif combining the shape of an eye with the sun's rays and a lightbulb just above the horse's head. On the right, the pose and gesture of a falling woman suggest Christ's Crucifixion. On the left, a woman holds a dead baby on her lap in a pose reminiscent of Mary supporting the dead Christ in the traditional Pietà scene. Behind the woman looms the specter of the Minotaur, the monstrous tyrant of ancient Crete, whose only human qualities are the flattened face and eyes. For Picasso, the Minotaur came to represent modern tyranny, as embodied by the Spanish dictator General Francisco Franco, who collaborated with Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini. […] These apparently disparate motifs are related by form and gesture, by their shared distortions, and by the power and content of their message. Cubist geometric shapes and sharp angles pervade the painting. Picasso's characteristic distortions of body and face emphasize the physical destruction of war. Eyes are twisted in and out of their sockets, ears and noses are slightly out of place, tongues are shaped like daggers, palms and feet are slashed. Although the integrity of the human form is maintained throughout, it is an object of attack and mutilation." |
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People Pictured |
Minotaur (Greek mythology) |
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Location Depicted |
Guernica (Spain)
Spain |
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Material |
Oil on canvas
Oil paint (pigmented coating)
Paint
Canvas |
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Measurements |
11 ft 5 1/2 in x 25 ft 5 3/4 in (3.49 x 7.77 m) |
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Technique |
Oil painting (technique)
Painting (image-making) |
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Work Type |
Oil paintings
Paintings
Abstract paintings
Abstract works |
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Repository |
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Madrid, Spain) |
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Source |
Adams, Laurie Schneider. Art Across Time. 2nd ed. 2 vols. New York: McGraw, 2002. (p.894, 25.12). |
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Rights |
Photograph reproduced in Adams courtesy: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Photographic Archive, Madrid, Spain. © 2001 Estate of Pablo Picasso/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. |
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Digital Publisher |
University of Louisville Department of Fine Arts/Allen R. Hite Art Institute Visual Resources Center |
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Format |
image/jpeg |
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Digital File Name |
VRC 437-42.jpg |
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Rating |
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