Pablo Picasso's Guernic Close Visual Analysis
Utilising, “The Study Diamond: effects, techniques, context and meaning” (The Open University, 2013, p. 76), this essay will argue through close visual analysis from an art history point of view that Picasso’s Guernica can be seen as a form of protest. Furthermore, the essay will also argue that Guernica’s meaning has changed and it is now a symbol of peace whilst continuing to fulfil its purpose as a form of protest.
Guernica is a large mural and an example of Synthetic Cubism painted by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). Created using the medium of oil paint on canvas with a narrow palette consisting of the neutral hues: white, grey and black; the resulting formalist qualities of Guernica can have harrowing effects on the spectator, “But to see …show more content…
The forces of Francisco Franco (1892-1975) defeated the Republican government in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). During the war on 26 April 1937, Franco allowed Hitler’s Luftwaffe to bomb the Basque town of Guernica, “Franco decided to unleash violence directly on the civilian population in order to really ‘cow’ that population and to assert and consolidate his power.” Harris and Zucker (cited in The Open University, 2016, 2.2.5). After Picasso read of the pogrom in a newspaper, Spain’s Republican government commissioned Guernica for an international exhibition in Paris, …show more content…
Born in the Basque city of Bilbao in 1963 during Franco’s regime, Carlota Larrea has familial connections to Guernica and provides an account of being Basque that also gives insight into Franco’s repression of Basque nationalism, “It’s very important for me to be Basque. And I definitely feel Basque more than Spanish and I always have.” Larrea adds, “I think Basque people are different from people in other parts of Spain, through culture, through personality” Video 2.2 Guernica: a personal perspective, Part 1 (The Open University, 2016). In addition, Larrea recalls her censored education which contained no reference to Picasso.
A primary source, Guernica forms part of history painting’s chronological narrative. Its contrasting hues are comparable to Goya’s Third of May 1808 and David’s Oath of the Horatii, “It is about the forces of darkness and the forces of good … … and the contrast between light and darkness” Video 2.1 Picasso, Guernica, 1937 (The Open University, 2016). Guernica also contains the Basque symbol of a horse. Its wounded state representing the suffering at Guernica. There is an eye shaped electric light which may represent a bomb or symbol of modernity. Guernica’s meaning is humanistic, portraying war as humanity’s
Guernica is a large mural and an example of Synthetic Cubism painted by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973). Created using the medium of oil paint on canvas with a narrow palette consisting of the neutral hues: white, grey and black; the resulting formalist qualities of Guernica can have harrowing effects on the spectator, “But to see …show more content…
The forces of Francisco Franco (1892-1975) defeated the Republican government in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). During the war on 26 April 1937, Franco allowed Hitler’s Luftwaffe to bomb the Basque town of Guernica, “Franco decided to unleash violence directly on the civilian population in order to really ‘cow’ that population and to assert and consolidate his power.” Harris and Zucker (cited in The Open University, 2016, 2.2.5). After Picasso read of the pogrom in a newspaper, Spain’s Republican government commissioned Guernica for an international exhibition in Paris, …show more content…
Born in the Basque city of Bilbao in 1963 during Franco’s regime, Carlota Larrea has familial connections to Guernica and provides an account of being Basque that also gives insight into Franco’s repression of Basque nationalism, “It’s very important for me to be Basque. And I definitely feel Basque more than Spanish and I always have.” Larrea adds, “I think Basque people are different from people in other parts of Spain, through culture, through personality” Video 2.2 Guernica: a personal perspective, Part 1 (The Open University, 2016). In addition, Larrea recalls her censored education which contained no reference to Picasso.
A primary source, Guernica forms part of history painting’s chronological narrative. Its contrasting hues are comparable to Goya’s Third of May 1808 and David’s Oath of the Horatii, “It is about the forces of darkness and the forces of good … … and the contrast between light and darkness” Video 2.1 Picasso, Guernica, 1937 (The Open University, 2016). Guernica also contains the Basque symbol of a horse. Its wounded state representing the suffering at Guernica. There is an eye shaped electric light which may represent a bomb or symbol of modernity. Guernica’s meaning is humanistic, portraying war as humanity’s