“Guernica” was painting in 1937, by Pablo Picasso, and was one of his most famous works. Pablo Picasso was a well known painter and sculptor during the 20th century. He is also, the co-founder of the Cubism movement. “Guernica” is the perfect example of this style. Guernica was a small Spanish town devastated because of bombardments during the Spanish Civil War. Picasso was really shocked when he heard about the horrors of the war. Pablo Picasso denounces the gratuitous violence of the Spanish Civil War by using a contrast between black, representing death and power, and white, representing the absence of life and sterility from happiness, and the literal personification of suffering characters. The use of these colors creates a three-dimensional scene, with size differences and shadowing of characters. This painting is exposed at the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid, Spain. 

“Guernica” is a black and white painting. The elements at the foreground are colored with different shades of grays, whereas the whole background is darker and makes the elements more pronounced. Also, the colors make the scene morbid, represent death, and the war. In the top middle of the picture, there is a lamp that brings artificial light. This light brings contrast with the elements in the foreground, and accentuate the violence and the distorted faces. This distortion amplifies the idea of the suffering and disabled people. This painting seems messy, but has a specific pyramidal structure. At the base, there is the death symbolized by the wounded soldier. At the top, the hope is symbolized by the lamp. The wounded horse stabbed by the spear is at the apex. 

This scene was painted with oil paints. The shiny effect of the oil paint makes a contrast with the darkness and horror that is represented. The whole surface of the painting was used; a blank space can barely be found. Everything is squished together in the bottom center of the painting, which can be compared to a crime scene with all the dead bodies stacked upon themselves. Each character has an oversized face and most of the time they are represented by the color white. Picasso tried to reproduce the idea that once someone is dead, the color drains from their face and becomes a gray-white color. “Guernica” is a realistic, but abstract painting. The realism comes from the message that he has sent, announcing the horror of the bombardment, and also by the easy recognition of the characters in this gory plot. The painting is seen as abstract because the characters drawn are size disproportionate to one another, and their faces are drawn as literal personifications of inward emotions being expressed. This is shown with the woman who is crying for her dead baby, her eyes are literal tear drops. Another example can be illustrated by the bull; his tongue is represented as a knife.

In demonstration of Picasso’s abstract view of the violence of the war, on the right side of the picture we can recognize a woman in the fire. She is crying, and her eyes are the shape of tears. She does not have teeth, which represents her as a victim because she cannot fight back. Her arms are open toward the sky, where the bombs came from. Next to the woman in the fire, there is another woman who is holding a lamp. It looks like she came from the outside of the house, and flies over the scene like a ghost. She symbolizes the people who are looking with horror at what happened. The candle that she is holding, illuminates the scene. This discovery by the light of the candle represents the journalists’ reports. People from all around the world will know what happened, and this disaster is going to be enlighten in the news. The lamp that she is holding brings light to the middle of the sad scene. This light represents the hope that people had lost after the tragic destruction of the town. This hope is realizing that they will have a normal life again, including positivity and enjoyment, as well as small everyday problems. Unlike today, Guernica’s inhabitants’ problems far surpass what they could have imagined. 

Just under the woman with the lamp, a woman is shown pulling her leg behind her body. She forms one of the diagonal lines of the pyramid. Her chest is naked, which means that she probably lost her kid during the event. A woman’s bare chest is representative of breast-feeding. She seems to suffer a lot. She has only one knee on the ground. This means that she does not give up her will to live, and she keeps walking to avoid other bombs. She is looking at the sky to communicate her suffering, asking for help from God. She looks desperate that no one is going to stop the slaughter.

At the center of the painting, near to the lamp, there is a wounded horse. He is dying, a spear has pierced his flank. His mouth is open to show that he is taking his dying breath. His tongue can be compared to a knife. This knife symbolizes the pain of the massacre. This wounded horse represents innocent victims, Guernica’s inhabitants, as well as the suffering of people because of the Civil War. 

At the base of the pyramid, there is a dead soldier. His body is dislocated, cut into several parts. His head is separate from his body and his arm is apart, still holding the sword. There are some lines on the arm that is holding the sword, which represent wounds.  He is the symbol of all combatants during the war and the violence. The dislocated soldier is the perfect representation of the damage of the war on a population. On the war field, parts of people’s bodies are found thrown about, and it is impossible to identify people’s limbs. At the end of the war, no sect can be declared a winner because there will be human damage on both sides. His sword is broken, and just next to it there is a flower. The broken sword represents the peace, which was broken with the bombardment of Guernica. The lines that draw the flower are really light, as the line between life and death is thin. Hope is represented by this flower because a flower is a happy symbol. Flowers represent new birth and Spring, which represent a new start and forgetting the past.

At the background, between the bull and the wounded horse, there is dove that can barely be seen. In war times, peaceful places cannot be differentiated, as the dove is faded into the background. The dove represents peace because white represents purity. Biblically, a dove is associated with new beginnings and peace. This dove has a broken wing, which is a comparison with the broken peace in that town. A dove usually can fly, but this dove cannot travel. The broken wing stops the spread of peace. Though peace cannot spread, terror can. 

In the top left corner of the painting, a bull in staring at the viewer of the image. The bull is the only character that opposes the audience. The bull is the symbol of the Nationalists during this war. Picasso used Greek mythology to design this character. The bull can be seen as a minotaur because of his human eyes. As we can see, his ears and horns are very sharp. They show cruelty. The mythological minotaur ate human flesh and lived by brute force. The minotaur during this war, the Nationalists, attacked innocent people and stole their lives through brute force. The bull seems expressionless, not shaken by the violence. 

The woman holding the baby is in front of the Bull, on her knees. Her face is looking at the sky. She is imploring God because of her child’s death. Her tongue is sharp, which accentuates the pain perceived by the audience. Her eyes and nostrils are the shape of tears; this amplifies her despondent nature. The eyes of the held baby are empty; his life is gone. His arms and head dangle toward the ground, it is an obvious sign of his death. Her chest is in profile to reveal her naked breasts. The naked chest of the woman represents the maternity destroyed by the violence of the war. The child is dead, and the mother breast-feeds. This character mimics the famous sculpture of Mary holding the crucified and lifeless body of Jesus (Michel-Ange, La pietà). The child in this scene represents the hope for a better future that was too easily destroyed by the political powers, like Christ crucified by Rome.

Pablo Picasso used a lot of symbolism to express his anger about the situation. He became famous and wealthy through the depiction of the painting “Guernica”. His fame is partially due to the thousands of people who died during the Spanish Civil War. This painting is huge (10ft by 24ft) as the physical and emotional damage was devastating. The cruelty and violence of the bombardment touched him personally, and he wanted to express his feeling about it. He also wanted to share with people from all corners of the world that this act was awful. The main point of this was not to make money. This painting is a memorial of the violence. People should learn from it, and not to repeat it.
