Focus on one work 🔆 Pablo Picasso's Guernica

He was born Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Martyr Patricio Clito Ruíz y Picasso. He ended up keeping only the first "Pablo" as his given name and the last "Picasso", which was his mother's maiden name.

Today, as Romania prepares to host the Picasso exhibition, I would like to talk to you about a wonderful work of art by this great artist.

Guernica is the most famous painting by Pablo Picasso. The Spanish Republican government commissioned this great work to represent Spain at the Exposition Universelle in Paris in 1937. It was from this request that Picasso conceived and created this painting.

Analysis of the painting's composition

The painting Guernica was inspired by the bombing of the small town of Guernica in 1937. In this gigantic work, Pablo Picasso rejected any realistic depiction of the bombed Basque town.

Now let's look at the elements that make up Guernica:

• The light bulb: there are no representations of the bombing raids, only a light bulb symbolising the deluge of fire in the form of incandescent flames emanating from the body of the bulb.
• The horse: located just below the light bulb and its rays. The horse is disembowelled, its body pierced by a spear.
• The bull: the figure of the bull is also represented, it is the emblem of Spain.
• The dove: the dove is barely sketched in, as if erased, to show the monstrosity of war in the face of vanished peace.
• The women: several women are represented, notably one on the left of the painting, her head tilted towards the sky, mouth open and carrying her baby in her arms. Another, at the top right of the painting, is screaming, her head and arms raised to the sky.
• The man with the sword: he is the only man represented in this work, lying on the ground with his whole body dismembered.

In this painting, Picasso uses an aspect that is typical of Cubism: the simultaneous representation of the face and profile, with no depth.

An extraordinary work

This painting by Picasso is unusual for at least three reasons:

1) Its dimensions: it is a monumental work painted in oil, measuring 3.5 m in height and 7.8 m in width.

2) The colours used: with Guernica, Picasso limited his choice of colours to shades of grey, black and white.

3) The circumstances in which it was painted: Picasso painted Guernica in his new Paris studio at 7 rue des Grands-Augustins, in a 17th-century building steeped in historical memories, the former Hôtel des Ducs de Savoie. It was the first time that Picasso had allowed an audience to be present while he was working. Dora Maar was constantly there, photographing the successive stages in the creation of the painting. Paul Éluard, the great poet, was also a frequent visitor, as was André Malraux.

A historic work

It took the bombing of Guernica, in the Spanish Basque Country, on 26 April 1937 for Picasso to agree to paint this immense canvas in just one month, surrounded by his friends and admirers. This painting has become the symbol of the triumph of destruction and hatred.

With this oil on canvas, Picasso wanted to draw the world's attention to the bombings carried out by the Nazis in support of General Franco's Spanish nationalist forces.

A weapon against the Germans

How did Picasso use his painting in occupied Paris to remind the Germans of their responsibility in the Spanish Civil War?

In September 1940, the Germans occupying Paris decided to make an inventory of all bank vaults, and Pablo Picasso was summoned to the headquarters of the Banque Nationale du Commerce et de l'Industrie on the Boulevard Haussmann, where he had two vaults next to that of Henri Matisse. Picasso kept many of his paintings there, as well as works by Matisse, Renoir and Cézanne...

The German investigators then decided to visit Picasso's home and studio and came across a photographic reproduction of Guernica. The German officer asked Picasso, "Did you do this?" "No, you did," Picasso replied.

What has happened to this painting since 1937?

Picasso forbade Guernica to come to Spain as long as Franco was in power, so the painting remained in exile even after Franco's death in 1975, traveling the world through numerous exhibitions, then preserved in New York at the MoMA, according to the artist's wishes...

On September 10, 1981, Guernica finally returned to Spain, where it was exhibited at the Prado Museum until the construction and opening of Spain's National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art: the Reina Sofía Museum in Madrid. Since 1992, it has been exhibited in this prestigious Madrid museum and is the pride of the Spanish people.