The 1937 Painting: Guernica By Pablo Picasso

Improved Essays
Art throughout history has always helped facilitate and distribute thoughts and ideas on current events, especially on war. The 1937 painting, “Guernica”, was a large mural painted by Picasso, a well-known artist during this time. The painting’s depiction of bodies and animals screaming and writhing in agony is thought to be a visual message responding to the destruction and bombing of a village located in Guernica, Spain, which happened around the time the painting was released. Furthermore, the widespread attention that Picasso received for this work helped bring attention to the Spanish Civil War. The use of black and white emphasizes the harshness of the scene and the sharp lines and disjointed limbs suggest pain and terror. The hellish depiction of what war brings has made it a powerful, universal, and emotional antiwar icon. The artwork’s use of color, shapes, size and symbolism help appeal to the audience’s pathos and ethos and asserts that war brings death and pain to the lives of the citizens involved. …show more content…
“Guernica” had advantages to help circulate it, and makes good use of Kairos because the painting was completed only two months after Spain was bombed. The artwork had no trouble reaching a wide audience because it had a geographical advantage due to the fact that Picasso was already a successful artist. Furthermore, it went on a world tour shortly after it was finished, making it accessible for many people. “Guernica” fits into the genre of narrative art because the purpose of the mural is to tell a story. It has a universal appeal the artwork can be applied to different events in history that caused mass destruction and

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    In 1937, the Spanish government commissioned Pablo Picasso to paint an oil on canvas mural for the 1937 World Fair in Paris, France. Guernica is a large piece, sitting at twenty-six feet wide and eleven feet tall, and was placed at the entrance of their pavilion. Picasso found inspiration from reading about the bombing of Guernica, Spain by the German air force, and although not a complete portrayal of the event, Picasso conveys the suffering and agony of the people and the tragedy of the war. Using only black, white, and grey oil paints, the mural uses symbolism, intersecting lines, and cubism to emphasize the misery of the people rather than the focusing on the entire incident. When first looking at the image, the eyes are drawn to the center where there are intersecting lines that start at the bottom corners and meet at the top of the lamp.…

    • 798 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    I will be discussing the 1937 work of Pablo Picasso titled “Guernica”, located in the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid. This abstract oil painting has interesting black and white values, and intersecting contour lines to create interesting shapes and patterns. These shapes appear to be that of people and animals, expressing expressions of agony or anger engaged in a gruesome fight. Though this is not a realistic painting, we can clearly see that these people, hands, arms, and even animals are in a stressful…

    • 85 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Pablo Picasso's, the Guernica is a large mural sized painting on canvas. It is a dramatic painting depicting the tragedy and suffering that war has on innocent lives. The artwork embodies the stylistic fundamentals of both cubism and surrealism. The Guernica is complicated to decipher, as the images overlap and body parts of other figures are scattered within the images. (Cubism)…

    • 351 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Irony In The Yellow Birds

    • 989 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Throughout the documents, in the yellow birds by Kevin Powers, and “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, imagery is used to protest war. In the yellow birds, Powers states “killing men and shooting them in the back and shooting them more times than necessary to actually kill them… felt like there was acid seeping down into your soul. This demonstrates what it is like to kill someone and puts a picture in the readers head. This quote gives the reader an…

    • 989 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Salcedo’s practices aim to address the issues rather then activating against them. Atrabiliarios was conceived in response to testimonies of the mourning families who suffered from these events. The artist gathered belongings from relatives and loved ones of those who disappeared during the Colombian Civil War, an armed conflict that began in the 1960s. Atrabiliarios embodies a distant memory which draws an emotional exchange with the audience. The unsettling materials used such as animal fibre, surgical thread and shoes that belonged to the deceased all tell harrowing tales of trauma and…

    • 1181 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    1. How does Diego Rivera’s mural, Liberation of the Peon express social realism and communicate a national identity to the public Refer to Blackboard Study Guides for image of mural)? Diego Rivera’s Liberation of the Peon painting expresses deterioration of a country and its people. The painting has a soothing, but yet strong colors in it that details the historical events of the time period.…

    • 783 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    War is evil and the widespread of its evil can go beyond the battlefield, further than anyone imagines. Going into the lives of the soldiers who survive, tormenting them in ways that make death the easier choice. Yet this evil, is sometimes a necessary one, that can be justified by the balance of good it could bring to all of mankind. Over the years, war has certainly caused an enormous amount of evil in the lives of many people involved, such as the life of Billy Pilgrim. Depicted in the “Slaughterhouse-five” by Kurt Vonnegut as well as that of civilians.…

    • 2714 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    This man gives a great representation of how grueling and painful war is. While we may never truly experience the pain and suffering of death in our lifetime, this picture can let us visualize how devastating war can be for both men and…

    • 702 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In times of conflict, society has often turned to the arts in order to cope with and make sense of the world’s shifting socioeconomic and political matters. In addition to that, music and art have often been used as a type of call to action. Especially before the twentieth century, music in war has been used in the form of drum cadences for marching into combat, as well as summoning servicemen into battle (Dobney). The rise of American jazz music in the 1920s challenged traditional values by bringing together different cultures despite economic and racial differences. In the world of visual art, Pablo Picasso’s abstract painting “Guernica” expressed heavy antiwar sentiment by displaying tortured individuals in black and white.…

    • 581 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Art has always been a profoundly unique human catalyst for expressing hope, inspiration, communication, and passion. As one of the darkest events in human history, the Holocaust (1933-1945) served as the story that suffering artists needed to share with the world. As a German-Jewish artist who died in Auschwitz, Felix Nussbaum, said right before his death in 1944, “When I perish, do not allow my pictures to die with me. Show them to the people.” Though the Holocaust is one of the most tragic events in human history, it is incredibly important that the stories of the dead, and survivors alike, were shared through the power of artists.…

    • 1103 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Representation of war is a theme that has been common throughout the history of art. War has existed for nearly as long as humans have, and each side has their own beliefs that justify the war. The art that is created about war generally represents one side, allowing the viewer to feel certain emotions towards opposing side. Two works of art that displays the theme of representation of war are The Third of May 1808, and A Harvest of Death. In 1814, Francisco Goya created the oil canvas of The Third of May 1808.…

    • 295 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Art is meant to capture the viewer’s attention and affect them on a deep level. Many times, it leads the audience to examine human beings at a rudimentary state. In Théodore Géricault’s painting, Raft of the Medusa, 1818-1819, Oil on canvas, the viewer does exactly that. In his painting, about 20 men are strewn on a makeshift raft from the remnants of their ship. Some are dead and some are franticly waving pieces of cloth in the air at a ship in the horizon.…

    • 951 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    In these several of pieces expressive art, the loss of innocence in the Civil War is demonstrated through a series of elements. Noone is prepared to commit murder, especially the youth in war, who are full of such severed enthusiasm. Witnessing murder has lasting-effects on anyone no matter where they originate. Too, a distraught brotherhood is formed during all the chaos of war. Though some could argue that experiencing war creates strength in character, ultimately their loss of innocence causes long term damage to their psyche.…

    • 1436 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the 1930, he showed his political views in a series of paintings Bull Fight, culminating in one of his most recognized pieces, Guernica. Guernica showed his protest to the Spanish civil war and all the atrocities that war…

    • 703 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Pablo Picasso it was the heavy critic of American intervention in Korea so that Massacre in Korea was considered as one of Picasso’s communist works. Communist of America was social political movement whose ultimate goal is to establishment of the communist society in Korea. Base on reading the history of this art work of Pablo Picasso that it posses strong reflection of first painting of the new age of Francisco Goya’s masterpiece The Third of May 1808 that derives the political statement comparing the American forces in North Korea with the napoleon army, tyrant of Europe. Picasso’s openly depicted civilians killed by the anti-communist forces as heroes standing and mocked the misshaped firing squad.…

    • 316 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays