Today we have been given a presentation on Guernica by Picasso, we have been shown and spoken about the Spanish painting in more depth. We also learnt that Guernica was not just a great painting, painted by a great famous artist but also a powerful political statement. It was painted as an immediate reaction to the Nazi’s devastating casual bombing practice on the Basque town of Guernica during Spanish Civil War.
Guernica itself was influenced by the tragedies that happened after the bombing, all the suffering and inflicts upon individuals, mostly innocent civilians. The painting became a monument for the anti-war representative, and an embodiment of peace. Also, Guernica is probably the most travelled painting in the world as it was displayed around the world in a brief tour, becoming widely recognised and acclaimed.
The proportion of this painting is 3.5 metres(11 ft) tall and 7.8 metres(25.6 ft) wide, pretty much the size of a mural. The painting displayed an incredible dramatic colour pallet, Guernica is painted in black, white and blue oils on canvas. It is at the moment displayed in the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid.
Following the impact the painting had upon the world, the painting has been repainted in different styles and colours by different artists around the globe as a reminder of what is happening right now in Syria and other war zones countries.
Here is the different representations of the Guernicas by different artists around the globe.
Source:
http://www.pablopicasso.org/guernica.jsp. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/early-abstraction/cubism/a/picasso-guernica
Celestin Dimitriu 