
By looking at Pablo Picasso’s painting “La Guernica”, and analyzing the color of the figures, the proportion of the characters, and the composition of the painting we can see the pain felt by the people during the Spanish civil war especially those in the town of Guernica. This is important because Picasso is able to evoke the feelings of those citizens onto the viewer of the painting, he is able to use many non-human objects to help symbolize his deeper meaning in the painting. 

At first glance “La Guernica” does not look like much other than a dark painting we oddly formed figures. However, there is a reasoning behind why Pablo Picasso did this is to represent a greater meaning than what is seen by the naked eye. Picasso’s painting solely consists of dark colors. These colors being black and gray. The purpose of this was to give the viewer a sense of dismay and doom while looking at the painting. If Picasso were to use lighter colors such as yellow, or blue his painting would begin to give a sense of happiness in the viewer’s eyes. Throughout the painting there are never two common areas that are the same color. Picasso alternates between black and gray coloring between each character to allow each character to stand out more. By doing this the artist is able to add variation to the painting while still having a dark theme to it.  The lightest part of the picture is the lightbulb in the center of the picture. By making this the lightest part it helps Picasso show that there is some goodness in the picture or that there is some good to come from this war.

The proportion and positioning of each of the figures is something that is very unique to this painting. In the painting all of the figures are relatively the same size. However, with each figure there is one body part or object that is proportionally larger or smaller than the rest of the figures body. This creates a sense of importance on each of these specific body parts, by doing so Picasso is able to show that all five senses were harmed in this painting. This was shown through either an enlarged mouth, or a larger nose, smaller ears, longer fingers and so on. Positioning also plays a huge role in Picassos painting. His painting is based off of a battle that took place in Spain during the Spanish civil war. Due to this his painting is almost in chronological order of the way things happened. First one sees a bull, followed by a screaming mother, then a horse, and finally plenty of people who were wounded in the war. However, the most import figure in this painting is the lightbulb shining in the center of the painting. Picasso used this to employ a symbol of hope for the viewer. By being in the dead center of the painting it is the focal point of the picture and is where all the activity takes place. Surrounded by pain in suffering Picasso uses the lightbulb to emphasize the idea that there was some good to come out of this whole situation of suffering.

The character’s in “La Guernica” are composed in a very abstract manner. Picasso was able to paint things the viewer sees on an everyday basis in a manner in which the figures looked extremely different but at the same time the viewer would still be able to understand what he was drawing. The composition of the character is very uncomfortable. This was done to create a feeling of pain and employ the symbol that the humans represent suffering. In the painting the only thing that is “normally” drawn is that of the lightbulb. This is drawn by Picasso so the viewer can clearly tell without any deep interpretation that it is the one shining light over this time of darkness. Once again Picasso uses this element to elaborate on his symbol of the light being the sign of hope. Also with each of the character’s their faces are composed in that of a deformed manner. This allows the viewer to pay extra attention to the faces of each of the characters. The differentiated composition of each of these faces shows that the war was over minute differences in physical appearance between people but, in the end of it all they all ended up looking the same. Therefore, Picasso uses the composition of faces to symbolize differences among people. 

Pablo Picasso uses many visual elements in his painting to draw the viewers’ attention and point them to symbols within his painting that show the pain and suffering caused by the Spanish civil war. The artist does this through the utilization of different shading of dark colors, along with different proportions and positioning of figures throughout his painting, finally Picasso also uses different compositions of his figures. All of these help Picasso lead his reader to find the deeper meaning within his painting.