Analysis of Picasso's Guernica
Picasso’s Guernica is one of the most powerful and disturbing anti-war
paintings ever produced.
I have always admired Picasso’s works and wanted to write a
dissertation on some aspects of his work. I first saw his Guernica as
a poster in my History of Art room. I was fascinated by it and wanted
to find out more about its background. I then went to Madrid and saw
this vast painting in the Rene Sofia Museum. Its scale and
disruptiveness intrigued me to study this painting in depth.
I will look at a short background to the Spanish Civil War and why it
happened and how it destroyed the Basque town Guernica and everyone
living in it. Then I will look at and study PicassoÂ’s reaction to the
bombing and how his famous anti-war painting came about. Then I will
look at the contemporary reactions to Guernica and how it still
affects people alive today.
Section 1: The Spanish Civil War
This is the background, the context, which informed Picasso, a Catalan
in voluntary exile in Paris, and led to the painting of Guernica,
which will be discussed in the following sections.
Between 1936 and 1939 over 500,000 people were killed in the Spanish
Civil War. The depression of the 1930s hit Spain hard. Unemployment
rose and Rivera 1* did not have the ability to sort out Spain’s
financial mess. The army withdrew its support and Rivera had to
resign.
In April 1931, elections were held in Spain, which resulted in
Republicans winning all the major cities in Spain. Alfonso 2* decided
to abdicate, as he feared that if he stayed on, Spain would plummet
into chaos. Those victorious at the election then declared Spain a
Republic and the monarchy was abolished.
The new Republic immediately faced a number of major problems, some of
which concerned two important regions in Spain, Catalonia and the
Basque region, who wanted independence. Had their requests been
successful, it would have lead to the break-up of Spain. The
government also believed that the army had too much say in politics
and determined to reduce its influence. Spain was primarily an
agricultural nation and the 1930s Depression had hit prices for crops.
Prime exports such as olive oil and wine fell in value and previously
used agricultural land fell into disuse. The little industry that
Spain had was also hit by the Depression. Iron and stee...
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... Spanish
Civil War. In this opinion at least one of the intentions of the
painting – to have a propagandist function – has been successfully
fulfilled.
When I first saw a reproduction of Guernica I had no idea about its
contents and the civil war that inspired its iconography. As a result
of my research for this dissertation I have learnt so much more about
nationality, the context of the war, and, of course Picasso’s deep
feelings as a Catalan. I only really knew about Picasso from his
Cubist works but now I have discovered a different side of Picasso
which I had never learnt about before.
Bibliography
Books.
Picasso – Timothy Hilton
A Picasso Anthology – Edited by Marilyn McCully
Picasso’s War – Russell Martin
Picasso – Ingo F. Walther
The Shock of the New – Robert Hughes
Picasso – Lorraine Levy
Pablo Picasso, A modern Master – Richard Leslie
Guernica – Paloma Esteban Leal
Paper Museum – Andrew Graham-Dixon
The Story of Modern Art – Norbert Lynton
Visual Arts in the 20th Century – Edward Lucie-Smith.
Newspapers and magazines.
The Times March 3 1999
The Times April 28 1937
Web sites.
www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk
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