Guernica (Picasso): Difference between revisions

Revision as of 02:19, 14 November 2006

Revision as of 03:41, 14 November 2006

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{{cquote|The Spanish struggle is the fight of reaction against the people, against freedom. My whole life as an artist has been nothing more than a continuous struggle against reaction and the death of art. How could anybody think for a moment that I could be in agreement with reaction and death? ... In the panel on which I am working, which I shall call ''Guernica'', and in all my recent works of art, I clearly express my abhorrence of the military caste which has sunk Spain in an ocean of pain and death.<ref>Colm Tóibín, [http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1764206,00.html The Art of War], ''The Guardian'', April 29, 2006. Accessed online 16 July 2006.</ref>}}

== The painting ==

In its final form, ''Guernica'' is an immense black and white, eleven-and-one-half-foot tall and almost twenty-six feet wide mural painted in oil. In creating ''Guernica'', Picasso had no interest in painting the non-representational abstraction typical of some of his contemporaries, such as [[Malevich]]. The mural presents a scene of death, violence, brutality, suffering, and helplessness without portraying their immediate causes. The choice to paint in black and white contrasts with the intensity of the scene depicted and invokes the immediacy of a newspaper photograph. [[Image:Guernica_skull_decontrast.png|right|300px|thumb|Hidden images in ''Guernica''. This de-contrasting of the lower portion of the horse makes it easier to discern the hidden skull-in-profille in the painting. The bull's head is formed mostly by the bent front leg. The head's nose is formed by the leg's knee cap.]]

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*A bird, possibly a duck, stands on a shelf behind the bull in panic.

*On the far right, there is a male figure with both arms raised towardin the sky. Thisterror is perhaps aentrapped referenceby tofire Goya'sfrom Thirdabove ofand Maybelow.

*A dark wall with an open door defines the right end of the mural.

=== Symbolism in ''Guernica'' ===