Picasso & Guernica

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Ece Manolya YALÇIN Aylin VARTANYAN AE 221.04 10.01.2014 THE HORROR OF WAR The artwork that I have selected was a large mural, twenty-six feet wide and eleven feet tall, “Guernica” which was done by one of the greatest and most influential artists of the twentieth century and the creator (with Georges Braque) of Cubism, Pablo Picasso. Picasso was commissioned to paint for the 1937 World Fair in Paris, although “Guernica” was not the painting Picasso had in mind when he agreed to paint. The bombing of the Basque village of Guernica, in Spain, on April 26th 1937, inspired him and he painted “Guernica” to point out the inhumanity and horror of war. Picasso explained feelings about Guernica in these words: "My whole life as an artist has been nothing more than a continuous struggle against reaction and the death of art. In the picture I am painting — which I shall call Guernica — I am expressing my horror of the military caste which is now plundering Spain into an ocean of misery and death." Guernica is one of the most powerful anti-war painting, offering a visual account of the devastating and chaotic impact of war both men and women, in this case specifically on civilian life and communities in the history. In Guernica, Picasso imperiously portrays the suffering of the Basque people and the tragedy of war. He doesn’t give all the details of the bombing like the bodies covered with blood, but emphasizes the suffering experienced by all. WORKS CITED "Pablo Picasso." 2014. Bio True Story. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 Jan 2014 . "Guernica: Testimony of War." Treasures of the World. N.p., 1999. Web. 2 Jan. 2014. . "GUERNICA MEANING: ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION OF PAINTING BY PABLO PICASSO." Legomenon. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Jan. 2014. .

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