In 1936 the Spanish Civil War broke out.
In Spain, a Republican government had been elected. But it was overthrown by General Francisco Franco and his forces. Franco was a dictator and ruled Spain until his death in 1975.
In April, 1937, the town of Guernica in northeast Spain was bombed by Germans who were helping Franco and his men. The bombs fell on market day. More than sixteen hundred people - men, women, and children- were killed. Almost nine hundred more were injured. There was no military reason for the attack.
Picasso was outraged by the murder of all these innocent people. With all his passion, he painted a huge twelve-foot-high-by-twenty-six-foot-long painting called Guernica. It is his most famous painting. He finished it in just three weeks. His girlfriend, Dora Maar, took many photographs of him working on it.
In gray tones, the painting shows a screaming horse, a fallen soldier,a screaming woman on fire from a burning house, and a mother holding her dead baby. There's a cutoff arm holding a sword and a severed head. There is a bull amid the chaos, which may symbolize the hope of overcoming Franco. Guernica is a very strong and disturbing portrayal of the horrors of war.
When he was asked to explain the painting, Picasso said, “It isn’t up to the painter to define the symbols. Otherwise, it would be better if he wrote them out in so many words!”
by True Kelly "Who was Pablo Picasso?"
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