The feature above is Guernica, an oil on canvas painting was done in 1937 by a Spanish artist, Pablo Ruiz Picasso. The painting features various motifs in different positions and all are mingled, with some in the background and others in the foreground, such that it is not clear what specific way the artist had painted them (Khan Academy, n.d). Perhaps a look at the historical times the painting was done as well as the analysis of the painting by other writers around thematic concerns. The objective of the following analysis is to create an understanding of the motivation behind the painting and the essence of the motifs on the painting in order to provide an in-depth visual and historical analysis of Picasso's Guernica.
Guernica is a giant oil on canvas painting measuring 349.3cm by776.6cm intended for the Spanish Pavilion at the 1937 International Exposition held in Paris. According to Paloma Leal(n.d), Picasso had been motivated to paint the scene above by the news about an aerial bombing by Germans on Basque town. However, the motifs are such it is clear what particular event Picasso was focused on, resulting in what is most likely a plea against the kind of barbarity and terror that was seen in wars in the 20th century (National Geographic, 2018). From the painting, there are clearly two groups the artist wanted to bring out that could help viewers to make their own interpretations about the painting. The first group is made of animals and a bird. The animals include a bull and a wounded horse that can be angled out from the left. The other group comprises a dead soldier and a host of women (Leal, n.d). The women include a woman holding a dead child in her arms while wailing, a woman holding a lamp and leaning over what is looking like a window in the upper right, another woman rushing in from the right, and a woman crying with her raised to the heavens and behind who is a burning house. From the wailing of the women, the dead soldier, the dead child, and the wounded and distressed animals, it is clear that Picasso's artwork is a display of a cruel and dramatic scene, probably a testimony about the horror of a war.
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Historically speaking, the painting was done around the time of the Spanish Civil War and thus could partly be about the horror of the war itself (Irwin, 2014). On the other hand, as a generic plea against the dangers of war, the painting could have been a warning about the horrific events surrounding World War Two that followed the Spanish Civil War (Khan Academy, n.d). Whether a testimony or a warning, Guernica features muted colors and clear intensity on each motif that speaks louder about the artist's motivation. The dull colors and the grey tone not only helped to create the kind of three-dimensional effect that one discerns quickly about the painting, but also helped to emphasize the extreme tragedy of this particular scene (Khan Academy, n.d; Getty Museum, 2015). On the other hand, the intensity on the motifs render the painting an emblem of the devastating tragedies of the 20th-century society and beyond.
From the preceding discussion, it is certain that Picasso achieved whatever mission he had when he went to oil on canvas with Guernica. With a combination of color techniques and pyramidal composition, Picasso makes it clear to his viewers that war results in devastating tragedies such as death and loss of property as well pain. He is clearly against such tragedies and would wish to warn his viewers. Despite that, it remains a very scanty painting that does not directly infer a particular event in history, although it may be associated with Spanish Civil War and perhaps the Second World War of the 20th century.
References
Getty Museum. (2015). Introducing Formal Analysis: Still Life. YouTube.com. Retrieved 19 Jun 2018, from https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kxALpig_Cac
Irwin, J. F. (2014). American Relief Aid and the Spanish Civil War. The American Historical Review, 119 (5), 1721-1722. https://doi.org/10.1093/ahr/119.5.1721
Khan Academy. Picasso, Guernica. Khanacademy.org. Retrieved 19 Jun 2018, from https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/early-abstraction/cubism/a/picasso-guernica
Leal, P. E. Guernica. Museo Nacional De Centro Arte. Retrieved 19 Jun 2018, from http://www.museoreinasofia.es/en/collection/artwork/guernica
National Geographic. The Horrible Inspiration Behind One of Picasso's Great Works. Nationalgeographic.com. Retrieved 19 Jun 2018, from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/archaeology-and-history/magazine/2018/05-06/pablo-picasso-guernica-painting-history/
Potter, P. (2003). Pablo Picasso (1881–1973). Guernica (1937). Emerging Infectious Diseases, 9 (6), 760-761. https://dx.doi.org/10.3201/eid0906.AC0906
