Definition of Guernica (Work)

Guernica is a town in northern Spain that is famous for two reasons intimately related: the bombing that suffered in 1937 during the Spanish civil war by the German aviation and the painting that Picasso dedicated to the tragic episode, which we analyze in detail.

The historical context of Guernica

This painting was not an initiative of Picasso, but actually the government In the 11th Spanish Republic, he decided to entrust the painting to the painter after the events of Guernica. With this commission, the republican government wanted the work of Picasso to be made known in the exposition Universal de Paris of 1937.

An analysis of the work

First of all, it must be said that this work is quite a symbol of the peace, because with it Picasso wanted to denounce the horrors of war.

The images have a marked cubist style. In the work it does not present a third dimension, since the background appears ahead of the foreground. The mutilated bodies that appear from different points of view. The bodies and objects in the work have a schematic appearance and all this is accompanied by three colors, white, black and gray.

Animals like the bull or the horse They allow the work to be identified with the Spanish reality that Picasso wanted to denounce.

In the play it is possible to observe a woman with her mouth raised to the sky while she feeds her lifeless child.

The image of the bull represents the concept of a threatening enemy

A gutted horse appears neighing and is the central figure in the composition (some scholars claim that the horse represents the devastated nation Spanish). Above the horse appears the image of a sun with an incandescent light bulb inside. Below the equine are the mortal remains of a soldier who with his hand holds a sword and a flower.

The image of a frightened woman with bare breasts probably reflects the suffering of the population civil in wars.

The painting is full of nuances, but they all convey the same idea: the rejection of barbarism and the suffering of war

Guernica is a large oil on canvas (more than seven meters long and three and a half meters high).

Likewise, he remained outside Spain for more than forty years because Picasso wished it to. At present this work can be seen in the Reina Sofía Art Museum in Madrid. However, for more than four decades it remained guarded in the Museum of Modern Art from New York. In 1981 the painting finally returned to Spain, as Picasso did not want his work to be in his homeland until there was a democratic regime.

Photo 2: Fotolia - tichr