"Guernica"

Paper Summary:

The work examined in this paper is Pablo Picasso's "Guernica," a massive work with a political purpose. The paper shows the simplicity of the painting in the way it reduces images to curved and angular expressions of outlines. It also shows its complexity in the way it brings together a number of elements in a cohesive whole to indicate the horror and terror of war, specifically of one incident in the Spanish Civil War, as a representative moment for all unjust war. The paper examines the fact that critics are divided on the work - they tend not to agree on "Guernica's" impact on either Picasso's success in general, or on the progress of art history.

From the Paper:

"Chronologically, Guernica was out of step with both the development of Picasso's ever-changing style and the height of the reign of cubism, of which he was a founder. Picasso's career and his cubist techniques, however, show why he chose this particular art form as the best means of communication and expression in this instance. Surrealism was an artistic movement with a strong political component, such as would be seen in Guernica, but with a different aesthetic. Surrealism was the most highly organized and tightly controlled artistic movement in this century, and its moral and executive leader was Andre Breton, given the unofficial title of the Pope of Surrealism."

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