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Guernica
Guernica is a monumental oil work by Picasso, created in response to the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. The painting depicts the chaos, suffering, and terror of war through distorted, dramatic figures of people and animals such as a bull, horse, woman with a dead child, dead soldier, and other symbols. The composition is rendered in a monochromatic palette of black, white, and gray, emphasizing the drama and severity of the message.
Portrait of the Creator
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Artist
Pablo Picasso
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Date of birth and death
25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973
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Natinality
Spanish
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Style
Blue and Rose Periods, Cubism, Surrealism, Neoclassicism, Modernism
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Significant works
Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, Guernica, The Old Guitarist, Three Musicians, Girl before a Mirror
Information about the work
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Year:
1937
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Execution technique:
oil on canvas
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Location:
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS), Madrid, Spain
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Theme:
war, suffering, terror, protest against violence, anti-war manifesto
Internal Narrative and Creative Framework
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Inner Narrative
The painting is a universal symbol against the barbarity of war and contains numerous symbolic elements – the bull representing masculinity and brutality, the horse symbolizing innocent victims, the woman with the dead child as a pietà, fire embodying destruction and chaos. The monochromatic color scheme adds to the work's suggestiveness and brutal charm.
The key to interpreting the work
For proper interpretation, Guernica should be understood as a universal protest against violence and war, and attention should be given to the use of fragmented, cubist forms and the symbolism of motifs, which enhance the emotional strength of the piece.See other works by this artist
