Guernica by Pablo Picasso

This painting has complete darkness in the background and the images are painted in the broken form. On the top of the painting is a bulb of light in the shape of the human eye, there are two animal images which are bull and the horse. Similarly there is also a confident human face and the other images are the broken organs of the human body, some of the human images are already dead and some others are expressing agony and pain.

There are also some marks like the script but they cannot be properly read. Even the broken hands have some weapons and they look like the blunt domestic weapons. This painting is based on realism which is related to an event in a city of Spain called Guernica. Before the Second World War, Spain was ruled by the Spanish dictators who were the followers of the Nazi totalitarian political theory in Germany over the authority of Hitler. In 1937 when Spain was facing the civil war, the Spanish dictators requested Hitler to surpass the civil war so that Hitler sent his army in Spain and one mid-night the army of Hitler attacked the city of Guernica which was bombarded with in the single night.

The whole city was destroyed, thousands of people were killed and the remaining were very badly injured. The next morning the news papers published the news story on the destruction of Guernica. Pablo Picasso made this painting by reading the news story related to the destruction. After this painting was finished, it was kept in his painting studio and one of the Nazi officers visited the studio who saw the painting and asked Picasso, “Did you do this?” Picasso is said to be replied, “No I didn’t you did it.” The painting is realistic in the sense that it is the reflection of the reality in the most probable way because the background darkness symbolizes the darkness of the midnight when destruction was carried out; it also symbolizes the brutality of the rulers and the army. The animals are also meaningful, the bull is related to the Spanish culture of bull fighting on the one hand and on the other hand both animal images is the under statement of the army who are compared with the animals to suggest their animalistic senselessness and passion. The bulb of light on the top suggests Hitler is curiously looking the destruction and the confident face is the face of the ruler who commanded this destruction.

The broken human images realistically reflect the agony and pain of the innocent people, the blunt domestic weapons on the broken hands suggest their defensive strategy which was completely powerless in front of the powerful bombs. The script or the marks used in the painting suggests the base of the news story as Picasso made this painting by reading the newspaper related to the destruction. It is said that it took six months to Picasso to complete this painting. The painting has the style of cubism which is the way of painting images in the broken structure using the geometrical shapes. There are also some contrasts use in the painting such as the contrasts used in the painting such as the contrast between brutality and innocent, humans and animals, living and dead, darkness and light as well as color and script.