Guernica by Pablo Picasso

The Guernica is a mural-sized oil painting on canvas by a famous Spanish artist known in the cubism movement, Pablo Picasso completed by June 1937. And is one of his most notable works. The painting, which uses a palette of gray, black, and white, is regarded by many art critics as one of the most moving and powerful anti-war paintings in history.

The large mural portrays the suffering of the people, animals, buildings and twisted by violence and chaos. The painting is alleged to be the response of the bombing in Guernica by German and Italian warplanes. Guernica is primarily a war painting, offering a visual account of the devastating and chaotic impact of war on both men and women.

The following list of interpretations reflects the general consensus of historians:

• The shape and posture of the bodies express protest.
• Picasso uses black, white, and grey paint to set a sombre mood and express pain and chaos.
• Flaming buildings and crumbling walls not only express the destruction of Guernica, but reflect the destructive power of civil war.
• The newspaper print used in the painting reflects how Picasso learned of the massacre.
• The light bulb in the painting represents the sun.
• The broken sword near the bottom of the painting symbolizes the defeat of the people at the hand of their tormentors. 

There is so much more to know about the Guernica and I would actually like to research more about it in the near future. I am interested in the symbolisms in the painting and as I know more, I tend to want more facts. Picasso’s artistic style, which is cubism, is actually easy to do but it feels different to look at it from a normal painting. You’d eventually need to be imaginative because sometimes there are a lot of things you’d miss on the painting and you try to look for it which makes the art style a bit interactive and interesting. Unlike in normal painting, you see want to need to see and what the artist wants us to see.