Review - Guernica
Guernica by Pablo Picasso, Oil on Canvas, 1937.
It was in the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, where I encountered the painting Guernica, and although already aware of the size of it, when faced with its enormity, I had to step back…and back…it was the size of a mural taking up most of the space on the wall on which it was displayed. In a room with whitewashed walls and a grey and white floor, it is the room’s only display.
A black and white painting by Pablo Picasso, completed in 1937, Guernica illustrates the horrors of an attack on the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. Although having had some knowledge on the piece, before I viewed it in person, I was overwhelmed by the sheer size and majesty of it and on the first view, I wondered if colour would create a better effect. Then I moved closer and closer and I could understand why Picasso had chosen to keep this painting in monotone. The drama is heightened adding a sense of history, through the black and white oil paint, which conveys an historical message as though seen through a newspaper.
One has to look to the left of the piece to discover the bull, a Spanish motif, but also a metaphor of destruction, obliterating everything in its path, without thought or reason. The bull was a representation of the fascists, led by General Franco and Guernica was a test site for Nazis, whom Franco supported – and civilians were the casualties.
The painting depicts six human figures including a woman crying out in desperation over the death of a baby that she holds in her arms. Her anguish is apparent as Picasso has painted her in profile, her white face silhouetted against a dark background, which is in fact the body of the bull. Other women are similarly represented and spread out around the painting, with a horse, centrally painted in shades of grey. It is another Spanish emblem and connects to the practice of bullfighting, another nod to Spanish tradition and heritage. A soldier lies dead at the very forefront of the painting, a focal point, with his hand holding a broken sword, showing death is not partial to just civilians.
This is painting that has to be seen to touch you. You can look at it up close and in parts and you can also step back and view it in all its glory and both ways, you can feel the terror and pain that is emitted from this piece.
This is not a painting that is meant to be aesthetically pleasing. This is a stark reminder of a moment in history and one that may have been forgotten or buried with the rest of the lesser events in history, if Picasso had not created Guernica – a point in time, a piece of history in the painting itself. And indeed, this painting became a representation of all those other places where innocent lives were lost in attacks on defenceless places.
The history, the context, the story is that which makes this painting so strong. This is not about asking questions, unless the question is WHY and that’s what Picasso wanted.