Picasso, Guernica (1937)

Pablo Picasso, Guernica (1937)
Oil on canvas
349 cm × 776 cm

Another Picasso so soon, I couldn't help myself. This is probably my favourite work by him, and it's probably his most famous, it's just been playing on my mind a lot lately. I think a lot of people don't like Picasso because what they see when they look at his pieces (much like this) is a stage of chaos and disorganization, when really, everything has carefully been planned.

This scene is depicting the bombing of the Spanish town Guernica by Italian and German planes during the Spanish Civil War. It's important because it's the first time that in aviation that planes specifically targeted a defenceless civilian town, recognized mostly as an act of terrorism. I mean look at how Picasso has depicted it, he certainly caught the terror. There's never really been a universally accepted interpretation of this painting, it's all about how you interpret it.

The main focus to me is the horse in the center, in a silent scream of agony with its side wounded. A bull sits just to the left of this, it's tail reminiscent of fire. A man lies dead on the bottom of the work, but interestingly is his left hand, which bears stigmata marks like those of Jesus. Is Picasso trying to paint these men as martyrs? However there seems to be a bit of hope too, in the right hand of this fallen man is a sprouting flower, perhaps this represents the chance of life springing from the destruction. The most eerie calm comes from above though, the 'eye' that has a lightbulb in its centre. The bombs. The cause of the destruction. Like an all knowing being in the sky, this symbolism is so calm but terrifying at the same time.
The most disturbing part personally for me in this work is the mother and child in the left hand side. The child is limp in her arms, lifeless. She screams in agony, a vocal manifestation of her loss, shrill and chilling yet silent. It's the horrifying reality of the situation, not just adults but innocent children who suffer to. It breaks my heart to look at the couple.
The writhing yet static mass of figures that interlock are haunting, Picasso has truly created a masterpiece here. I haven't even begun to cover all the symbolism and figures, it's so personal but the message is always the same. War is wrong. Simple, cliche, but effective all the same. It seems like Picasso has taken all the war statistics that we hear everyday and created a visual representation of the people that are lost.
These are not numbers. They are not names on a page. They are not the headlines of a newspaper. The victims in our history books.
They are people. Defenceless people. The individuals who suffer, and still suffer to this day, because people higher up in society cannot settle petty differences. How dare we not mourn the loss of them. How dare we overlook them. I can hear Picasso say, look at them. Look at their faces. Look at their pain, their loss, their death. Just simple, look.
It's a beautiful piece, in the most haunting and terrifying way imaginable.