Resources - Pablo Picasso's Guernica

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‘Guernica ’ is one of Pablo Picasso’s most famous works of art. It was commissioned by the, then republican, Spanish Government for the World’s Fair in Paris in 1937. It is a massive canvas and measures 349cm by 776cm.

The black and white painting depicts the awful suffering and horror suffered by the people of the town of Guernica, as it was carpet bombed during the Spanish Civil War – people, animals and buildings are wrenched apart during the senseless violence and different objects within the work of art come together to form a skull. For many people, this painting represents the inhumanity, brutality and senselessness of war, as well as protesting about the bombing of innocent civilians.

Although made famous by the Picasso painting, the town of Guernica has always been a symbolic place for the Basque people – traditionally, the Biscayne people would meet under an oak tree in the town called the Gernikako Arbola, where Biscayne leaders swore to respect the Biscayne liberties. To this day, the modern “Lehendakari”, or resident of the Basque Government, swears his charge there.

Guernica the painting is full of Picasso’s signature imagery such as the Minotaur, the depiction of the suffering of women and images of Christian martyrdom. The painting was actually completed in a very short time. The town itself was attacked in April 1937, and it was to be finished within the same year. Although a Spaniard himself, Picasso had self-exiled himself to Paris and had not, and in fact never would, visit the town.

After its completion, and subsequent showing at the fair, Guernica toured around Europe , visiting Scandinavia , London and France . With the coming to power of Franco after his victory, the painting was packed off to the United States to be shown and to raise funds, awareness and support for the Spanish refugees. Pablo Picasso determined that the piece should be kept safe by entrusting it to the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York City .

The painting travelled extensively around America and the rest of the world until, after concerns about its state, it was decided to keep it in one place – a room on the third floor of MOMA along with some of Picasso’s other pieces.

Franco often expressed his desire to have Guernica returned to Spain , but Picasso refused to allow it back until the Spanish people would again live in a republic. He would later add more conditions for the return of the painting including, the restoration of ‘public liberties and democratic institutions’.

Pablo Picasso died in 1973, and two years later, in 1975, Franco also passed away. After Franco’s death, Spain became a democratic constitutional monarchy. When asked for the return of the painting, MOMA argued that this constitutional monarchy did not, in fact, represent the republic that Picasso had desired. Finally, after much negotiation, MOMA gave back the painting and Guernica arrived in Spain in 1981.

Guernica , especially during the 1970’s, had come to be a great symbol of both the death of Franco and his regime, and also of Basque nationalism.