Friday, March 06, 2009

when the tigers broke free...

Guernica Pablo Picasso, 1937

Guernica is a monumental painting by Pablo Picasso, depicting the Nazi German bombing of Guernica, Spain, by twenty-eight bombers, on April 26, 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. The attack killed between 250 and 1,600 people, and many more were injured. The Spanish government commissioned Pablo Picasso to paint a large mural for the Spanish display at the Paris International Exposition (the 1937 World's Fair in Paris). The Guernica bombing inspired Picasso. Within 15 days of the attack, Pablo Picasso began painting this mural. On completion Guernica was displayed around the world in a brief tour, becoming famous and widely he acclaimed and brought the Spanish civil war to the world's attention. 

In any battleground, innocent people become the victims of the fighting. Long after the hostilities are over and the combatants have gone, there are people left behind to suffer, often for a long time. Guernica epitomizes the tragedies of war and the suffering war inflicts upon individuals. This monumental work has eclipsed the bounds of a single time and place, becoming a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, an anti-war symbol, and an embodiment of peace...For a majority of people aware of the painting, and for artists in particular, Guernica represents the apex of politically motivated expression, and at over 15 feet, is imposing in its size. Seeing the painting up close in Madrid (2007), while attending art school brought about a flood of emotions and sparked a drive to create something as historically and contemporarily relevant as Picasso's Guernica sometime during my painting career...

" Inspiration exists, but it has to find us working"
~Pablo Picasso

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