Guernica

Guernica Guernica The piece I chose is Guernica, the mural painted for the Spanish Pavilion of the Paris’s World Fair by Pablo Picasso. Standing at 11'6" x 25'8", its massive size does not help mask the symbolic brutality from its viewers. Using only black, white and grey oil paints, this mural is riddles the canvas with symbolism, begging its viewer to decipher its underlaying message. The Guernica uses its images as a language with Picasso playing narrator the story unveils. Everything in the piece has something more to say than what it is presenting. The inspiration from Guernica came from the destruction of the Basque town of Guernica . This town was destroyed by German aircraft at the request of Spanish Nationalist commander Gen. Emilio Mola. They used a technique called saturation bombing which was later used on a larger scale in World War 2. The bombing killed a countless amount of people. The horse representing the people is being stabbed with a spear, to show the people of Guernica dying. The soldier with the broken sword representing resistance. The candle and lightbulb aluminate the horrific scene and the eye tells all to view what is before them. A woman holding her guernica, painting, picasso, people, piece, through, art, world, white, war, truth, something, society, seem, security, representing, place, pieces, picasso’s, paintings, out, one, much, message, horse, horrific, feel, council, brutality, bombing, black, being, apart, writing, work, way