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DA7. Picasso’s Guernica

Statement

Review the information on Picasso’s mural Guernica, painted in 1937.

Picasso, Guernica. Retrieved from https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/cubism-early-abstraction/cubism/a/picasso-guernica

Would you classify Guernica as Expressionism, Cubism, Dada, or Surrealism? Explain your answer by using specific visual and stylistic references.

Answer

Guernica was painted by Pablo Picasso in 1937. The painting was presented at the Paris World’s Fair, which was held to celebrate the advancements in technology. The painting was a response to the bombing of the village of Guernica in northern Spain, during the Spanish Civil War on 27 April 1937 where German forces in their support of the fascist forces bombed the village using 25 bombers destroying the city and killing ⅓ of its population in three hours (Robinson, 2023).

The painting is large in size, measuring almost 3.5 * 7.8 meters. The painting depicts dying and dead bodies of humans and animals, people screaming with open mouths, and people mourning the loss of their loved ones. Picasso chose a monochromatic palette of gray, black and white similar to the horrific images in the newspapers. The painting implements great complexity and symbolism. The painting is confusing and chaotic at a glance with characters overlapping although they seem unrelated to each other. The bull and the horse symbolize the two sides of the war and its brutality (Robinson, 2023).

Cubism was a movement that is characterized by the simplified representation of the human body as opposed to its natural form; it renders volumes as fragmented planes and subdued pallets (Cubism Movement Overview, 2024). Dada was a movement started in Zurich in response to World War 1, it was characterized by by its mockery of materialistic and nationalistic attitudes (Dada Movement Overview and Key Ideas, 2016). Surrealism was a movement that was characterized by its use of dream-like imagery and the subconscious mind (Surrealism Movement Overview, 2015). Expressionism was a movement that was characterized by its use of strange colors and distorted figures to express emotions (Expressionism Movement Overview, 2024).

Looking at the Guernica; it matches the description of Cubism in that it uses a subdued palette and fragmented planes. The painting was also done by Picasso who was considered the father of Cubism.

References

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