Pablo Picasso Guernica Essay

Guernica by Pablo Picasso in the summer of 1937. This painting is depicted as one of the strongest pieces of art against war and its consequences. This oil painting portrays the cruelty of the Bombing of Guernica, as shown in the name, by the Italian and German Fleet earlier on in that same year. Many viewers and critics relate this piece to another by the name of The Third of May by Francisco Goya in 1814 and are believed to be a great influence on Picasso’s piece. In this speech, I will speak about the historical context, the drawing technique, and I will break down the artistic symbolism of the piece. During the late afternoon of April 26, 1937, the Spanish town of Guernica was lit into a blazing inferno by bombs, utterly obliterating

It consists mainly of the colors white, blue and black. These colours each symbolize many different things: blue describes the despair and depression of Guernica and the many people who lost someone important to them, white is also related to death and mourning as the people of Guernica who survived mourn for their family’s lost lives, and black represents the evil of the Nationalists and its supporters. In the painting, many of the people are distorted and dismembered, depicting the people of Guernica after the bombing, stricken by fear and shock, slowly and painfully waiting for the pain to end. The horse and the bull are dominant animals in the Spanish culture, and they portray the toughness and strength the Spanish people have to have to get through this crisis they have been drawn into. The bull, contradictorily, is also depicted as a force of destruction, as a raging bull shows the brutal devastation of the town of Guernica. You can also see a woman mourning the death of a little girl. This is evidently there to show the loss of family and the grief it causes. She seems to be looking up to the sky, looking to god for forgiveness or guidance. If we zoom in here, you can clearly see a lightbulb. This simplistic lightbulb is there to depict the technological advancement and what its consequences are, as this would not have happened if the Germans had not wanted to test its air