A Favorite Painting 15

Pablo Picasso, Guernica 1937

Perhaps the most famous political painting of all time (or at least the twentieth century), Picasso's masterpiece captures the brutality of total war with stark emotion and serves as a devastating indictment of the evil of fascism. It memorializes an event from the Spanish Civil War, in which Hitler knowingly launched a massive attack against a civilian population (there was no military significance to Guernica-- no troops there, no supply depot, no train station, no strategic value) in a calculated attempt to break the will of Loyalists at the front lines trying to stop the advances of Franco and his forces, by eliminating that which they were fighting to protect. Hitler's plan failed, but that hardly diminished the viciousness of the attack. Picasso (a Spaniard, though not of Basque heritage like the people of Guernica) recognized this blatant inhumanity for what it was, and registered in this painting what should have been the shock of the entire world at the news of this infamous deed. The painting today occupies its own museum in Madrid (adjacent to the Prado), where one can view not only the enormous completed work, but also a series of sketches and drafts through which Picasso worked out the elements of the final version, which occupies an entire wall in the gallery. It still conveys the powerful emotions unleashed by such brutality, but it's sad that its implicit call to end the madness has gone largely unheeded by too many world leaders in the years since it was created.

p.s. I encourage you to click on the image above to get a larger view of the picture.