"Guernica" Picasso: description and photo

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Spanish abstract artist Pablo Picasso reacted sharply to social problems, reflecting a view of them in his work. One of his most famous works is Guernica. This picture reflects the artist's worldview, expresses his vision of the world and his attitude to the events taking place around him.

History of Creation

Pablo Picasso's painting "Guernica" has become a manifesto against cruelty and violence. The symbolism of the work encodes the history of Europe during the civil war and reflects the suffering of the whole world. The reason for the creation of the picture was the bombing of the Spanish town of the same name by the Nazis. Picasso's "Guernica" contains archetypal symbols and images. They reflect the spirit of modernity.

One of the most important masterpieces of the 20th century, Guernica by Picasso, was created by the author in a fit of creative madness. He was so amazed by what happened that he created a canvas with incredible energy, bewitching and frightening, like the events that took place in the Basque town on April 26, 1937. The bombing of the Nazi aviation destroyed the city by 70% and claimed the lives of over 1500 people.

Picasso worked onpainting almost continuously and completed it in a month. Many of his friends periodically watched the work and left their comments. For the first time, the finished result was presented at the world exhibition. Some of the most valuable photos of Picasso's "Guernica" are pictures taken by the artist's companion. They told the world the stages of work on the painting.

"Guernica" by Picasso: description

"Guernica" is painted in oil and is a fresco canvas measuring 3.5 m high and 7.8 m wide. Initially, it was planned to make the picture in color, but this made it lose its oppressive atmosphere. The monochrome color scheme is due to the author's desire to depict a dead city, immersed in darkness. Many critics note the similarity of the image with newspaper clippings of the time and call the picture a "propaganda weapon".

The painting by P. Picasso "Guernica" depicts scenes of suffering, violence, chaos, hopelessness, impotence and death. The people and animals depicted in the picture are crippled and broken, their eyes are full of horror, and their mouths are open in a silent scream. The buildings in the image are destroyed or engulfed in flames.

Picture style

"Guernica" can be called a graphic panel. Eyewitnesses claim that Picasso worked like a man possessed, which was expressed in the style of writing the picture. The lines go from smooth, blurry and rounded, like flames, to sharp and clear, like broken glass and shell fragments. The main task of the graphic element was to reflect such emotions as fear, horror, anger and despair. PicturePicasso is thoroughly accurate. Avoiding detail, he highlights only important symbols and allegories.

In creating the picture, the means of artistic expression and stylistic devices borrowed from cubism and surrealism were used. To increase the expression of the black and white image, the artist used color overlay, crossing lines, playing with shadows and shades of gray.

Composition

According to the arrangement of objects, the canvas resembles a triptych - a picture consisting of three independent parts connected into one whole. If you visually divide "Guernica" into three parts, each of them can really exist separately, retaining its own composition and semantic load.

Everything that happens is contained within the room. A bull is depicted in the upper left corner of the picture. Beneath him stands a woman mourning her dead child. To the right of the bull, a little behind, a bird resembling a dove flutters.

A horse is in the center of the composition. Her posture and gaze look like she is thrashing in agony and about to fall dead. Many note that her nose and wide open mouth form something similar to a human skull. At the horse's feet, a soldier lies in an unnatural position, arms spread wide. In one of them he holds a flower and a piece of a sword. Above the horse's head is a lantern or lamp in the form of a bull's eye. To the right, a face resembling an antique mask floats into the room through an open window. It holds a burning candle in its hand and looks at what is happening in horror. A little lower - a woman in rags moves to the center, her gaze is directed upwards. If the picturescould sound, we would have heard the piercing cry of a bull, a horse and a woman with a child. It is represented by their tongues in the form of sharp daggers.

On the right, the artist depicted a man who, in desperation, raised his hands to the sky. There's fire all around him, he can't get out. A black wall with a door completes the right edge of the painting.

Symbolics

Picasso's "Guernica" speaks the language of symbols. It is full of mysteries and allegories, and each image carries a certain meaning. The main colors in which the picture is made are black, gray and white. They can respectively mean death, ashes and grave shroud.

The key figures in the picture are the bull and the horse. According to the most common point of view, the bull represents the callousness and indifference due to which such things as war and fascism can even take place. Some believe that, on the contrary, he personifies the triumph of Spain, and the horse - her suffering. The artist himself claimed that the bull is a symbol of cruelty, and the horse is the people. Later he said that both animals meant sacrifice. Also, the bull refers us to the image of the minotaur as a symbol of the destructive animal nature.

The lamp in the shape of an eye is not in vain the semantic center of the picture. On the one hand, it means a certain force that cannot be resisted, and on the other hand, it illuminates the space around with the light of hope. It is not for nothing that the figures in the picture throw back their heads in despair, look up with empty eyes and stretch out their hands to the sky.

The convulsing dove obviously represents war. The bird of the world also froze,spreading her wings, raised her head up and opened her beak in a cry.

Stigmata can be seen on the palms of a dead soldier. Picasso was not religious. With this symbol, he wanted to show suffering for no apparent reason. Like Christ, people are sometimes forced to suffer because someone has decided for them that this is how it should be. This is how the Spanish people suffered at the behest of the Nazis.

A woman with a candle is an image of a person watching from the side. Her eyes express a silent plea to stop the cruelty.

The fate of the painting

"Guernica" has always caused controversy and conflicting reviews. Someone called it the last masterpiece of Picasso, someone, on the contrary, did not consider it artistically valuable, they called it only an anti-fascist proclamation. During the first exhibition, the picture did not make the proper impression on the audience. In this "suffered" canvas, they saw only a semblance of a political manifesto and the tragedy of one small town, not understanding the idea of protest against universal cruelty.

At the beginning of World War II, the Gestapo came to Picasso's house. On the table they saw a postcard with a reproduction of Guernica. When asked if he did it, Picasso replied: “You did it …” It is not known what this unheard-of audacity could have turned out for the artist, if not for the German sculptor Henri Brekker, who helped solve this problem by patronizing artists living at that time in France.

Exhibited for the first time on June 4, 1937, "Guernica", according to Picasso, was worthy to be in the Madrid Prado Museum. There she exhibitedin 1981-1992, after which it was transferred to the Hagia Sophia Museum, where it is located to this day.

As a monument of despair and destruction, "Guernica" has a creative mission in terms of its impact. Like the woman depicted on it with a candle in her hand, she encourages people to look deep into themselves and find the light there. Depicting chaos and pain, the painting is a call to lay down arms. Thus, the main masterpiece of Picasso is, in a broad sense, a manifesto in the name of peace and humanity.