The cubist painting by Picasso, called
“Guernica”, is an immense black and white
mural painted in oil. The mural depicts a scene
of death, violence, brutality, and helplessness.
It shows the suffering people and animals
experience in the violence and chaos of a war.
The overall scene is within a room. There are
humans, animals and buildings in this scene
but there seems to be no background. On the
left side of the painting we can see a mother
holding her dead child. A wide-eyed bull stands
Pablo Picasso |
over the woman. At the bottom lies a fallen
soldier, still holding his broken sword from
which a flower grows. In the centre above the
soldier is a horse whose body is pierced with a
spear. On the right, there is another woman
trapped in a burning building.
The painting is very large: 349 x 776 cm.
Despite its great size, it was painted in less than
two months. Picasso was so angry about what
had happened in Guernica that he wanted
everybody to immediately take notice of the
brutal event. All the figures in the painting seem
to be crammed together and their mouths are
open as though they are crying out. We get the
feeling that they can't get away from the horrors
of war; they are trapped in their suffering.
Some people criticised Picasso's cubist
style because they could not understand his
symbolism. Picasso answered his critics, “It
isn't up to the painter to define the symbols.
The public who look at the picture must
interpret the symbols as they understand
them”. Even though opinions about the exact
meaning of the images of the painting are
numerous, there is no doubt that the painting
sends a strong antiwar message, not only
about what happened in Guernica but about
the kind of suffering that takes place in any war.
Adapted from: Picasso's Guernica in
“What your sixth grader needs to know” |
