My Driving Question

How does Picasso show the horror of Guernikain in thier time of need in this one painting?

My Thoughts:

Guernica, Spain

Picasso painted the Guernica after the Nazi German bombing on Guernica, Spain. This happened on April 26^th 1937 by twenty-four bombers, during the Spain’s civil war.

250 to 1,600 people were killed and many more were injured.

This painting portrays a simply bullfight, the horror of the bombing, a scene of death, violence, brutality, suffering, and helplessness without portraying their immediate causes. Picasso's also protested against Franco's actions and the political and ideological beliefs of the artistical élite of the time.

Picasso said as he worked on the mural:

“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.”

Pablo Picasso
Born Oct 25^th 1881 – Died April 8^th 1973