Guernica

Guernica

In 1937, Pablo Picasso painted Guernica, oil on canvas. The Republican Spanish government commissioned the mural for the 1937 World Fair in Paris. Guernica is a large mural, twenty-six feet wide and eleven feet tall, and was placed at the entrance to Spain's pavilion. Picasso did not do any work after receiving the commission until reading of the bombing of the Basque village of Guernica, in Spain. It was that attack, perpetrated by the German Luftwaffe, that inspired him. Guernica, however, is not a complete depiction of that event. In Guernica, Picasso masterfully conveys the suffering of the Basque people and the tragedy of war. He seeks not to report on every detail of the bombing, but only to highlight the suffering by all.

On first viewing Picasso's Guernica, one initially focuses on the center of the mural. Many lines cross or meet near the middle of the work. There are two major diagonal lines crossing Guernica. They start at the two bottom corners and meet toward the middle-top where the vertex is an oil lamp. These main diagonals are not explicitly defined, but are created with overlapping, dark and light values, and the subjects themselves. For example, towards the bottom right a there is woman picking herself up whose head, neck, and arm point along one of the main diagonals. That diagonal is continued in the background by a contrast between light and dark shapes. These lines frame the middle of the mural, which is further highlighted by some of the lightest values within the work. This area contains a large geometric shape of pure white as part of the background. This light color draws the eye to the center. However, the eye is also drawn to this area because of contrast in light and dark. The black, rectangular shape near the horse's neck, they gray of the newsprint, and the white of the background all overlap in a tangled, chaotic manor that attracts attention.

Although the initial focus is near the center of the mural, Guernica commands a larger movement of the eye from bottom right to top left. Each subject of Picasso's work has their head turned towards the top left corner. The floating head is looking left, the horse twists his neck to look to the left, and the woman holding her child looks directly upward. The strong diagonal line that moves from bottom right to top left also adds to this movement. Focusing more specifically on the subjects of Guernica, movement from right to left is aided by the severity and gravity of the individuals' situations. At the extreme right, a woman is falling and has not yet hit the ground. Further left, a woman is picking herself up after falling. The horse in the center is fatally wounded and will soon die. To the far left, the child in his mother's arms has already died, and so has the warrior whose head rests at the bottom of the mural. But again, the strong right to left movement arises from the direction in which the subjects are looking.

Guernica is monochromatic to make its imagery more powerful. Lack of color keeps the viewer focused on the subject matter at hand, as well as keeping the mural cold, which agrees with its general theme of injustice in war. Also, Picasso's flat imagery does not distract the viewer from concentrating on imagery. The viewer is given no other choice than to concentrate on the subject matter of Guernica and ponder it's meaning. The flat, grayscale images generalize the imagery and contribute to the general theme of unnecessary suffering and tragedy.

At the extreme right of Picasso's mural, a woman is falling from a burning building. Flames appear to be spewing from the top of that building. The flames consist triangles with different values of gray. The same light triangles are coming from the woman's dress. Her arms flail upwards as she falls, and it is her fall that draws the eye downward and moves the viewer through the work. Below lies the woman picking herself up off the ground as she flees. This woman is made up of overlapping shapes. Picasso's abstraction is also very evident. The woman's knee is grossly enlarged, perhaps reflecting an injury. Most importantly, strong line moving up to the horse is created by her outstretched left arm, her leg, and her neck.

In the middle of the mural lies the horse, a significant focal point. Unlike any other figure in the work, the horse has some texture due to the newsprint of its body. Picasso incorporates the look of newsprint in Guernica because this is how he himself first learned of the tragedy at Guernica. The horse is fatally wounded, as indicated by a gash in the body directly under the head. Because of this, its head and neck are twisted as it cries in pain. The horse is assumed to be suffering incarnate, and represents the innocent Basque people. All suffering in this work is a direct result of the attack on Guernica, and the horse as a victim shows that war has no digression. The suffering of the innocent, Guernica's central theme, is emphasized.

Above the horse, there are several light sources. One is a light bulb and one is an oil lamp. These lights do not serve as a significant light source within the work, but have a more symbolic role. The exploding light bulb is one of the only specifically modern elements in Guernica. Ironically, it does not serve as a light of hope or a light of life, but it serves as a light of destruction. The light bulb symbolizes the bombs that terrorized Guernica for hours during the attack. Llorens notes, "In Spanish, an electric bulb is called Ð''bombia,' and Ð''bombia' is like the diminutive of Ð''bomb.' So, Ð''bomba-bombia' is a verbal poetic metaphor for the terrifying power of technology to destroy us." Furthermore, the theme of the 1937 Paris Exposition was modern technology. So, Picasso is commenting on the fact that technological developments can bring death and destruction, as well as amenities. Modern mechanical development always has a darker side. Notice that the oil lamp is not as modern, nor is it exploding. It burns a natural flame as opposed to an electric filament. It contrasts with the electric bulb, because even though is it not illuminating the scene, it is enlightening the world on the bombing of Guernica. The oil lamp, held by a grossly outstretched arm, is the light of truth. The innocence of the natural world relative to man is highlighted. Perhaps this is as close as Picasso comes to directly protesting the Nazi attack. Picasso mainly seeks emphasize the suffering of the subjects, but here he is educating everyone at the World Fair on the tragedy in Spain.

Follow the central axis of Guernica down to the ground. There lays a severed arm clenching a broken sward and a flower. Again, the sward speaks to old and new.

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