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The Backstory of Picasso's “Guernica”
- dahdum 4y agoHere's the mural in gigapixel. https://guernica.museoreinasofia.es/gigapixel/en/#4/63.94/-124.48 https://guernica.museoreinasofia.es/gigapixel/en/#4/63.94/-1...
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- elliekelly 4y agoIt looks like "How" was accidentally dropped from the title so as-written it doesn't quite make sense because today Guernica is hardly considered a "flop". His related sketches The Dream and Lie of Franco[1][2] are also worth a look. Fun fact: Franco wanted Guernica exhibited in Spain but Picasso refused. It lived at the MoMA with instructions that it shouldn't be sent to Spain until Spain was a democracy and the people were free. Not so fun fact: Picasso was an arogant asshole of the highest order. [1]https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/370475 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/370475 [2]https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/336519 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/336519
- brudgers 4y agoPablo Picasso never got called an asshole. https://youtu.be/AXtBsikiY50 https://youtu.be/AXtBsikiY50
- dang 4y agoI approve of you linking to the John Cale version. the original (produced by Cale): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujwAUbRa4cs#t=674 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujwAUbRa4cs#t=674 bowie: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSccHqk9s64 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSccHqk9s64 talking heads: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_CCbENmNaI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_CCbENmNaI
- dtgriscom 4y agoI prefer Burning Sensations' version from Repo Man: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl8sWnUZVL4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sl8sWnUZVL4
- corrral 4y ago> It looks like "How" was accidentally dropped from the title so as-written it doesn't quite make sense because today Guernica is hardly considered a "flop". I don't follow how adding "how" modifies the meaning in this way—making it clear it's about a historical and not ongoing situation. Also, I think "how" is dropped automatically by HN because it's usually ugly and meaning-free clickbaitese.
- elliekelly 4y agoPerhaps pedantic but to me "Picasso’s Great Anti-war Mural Flopped" sounds like a story about a crappy painting while "How Picasso’s Great Anti-war Mural Flopped" sounds like a story about the situation and circumstances surrounding the painting. But I agree that with or without the "how" they're both pretty click-baity titles.
- dang 4y agoI'd say the software got that one right, but the title without "how" is still pretty baity. We've changed it to the HTML doc title now, minus "unexpected".
- whiskeytuesday 4y agoMy favourite possibly apocryphal Picasso moment[0] has to do with just that painting. I saw it myself at the Reina Sophia some years ago and found it quite stunning. [0] https://youtu.be/EFZuYi2oXsM?t=1233 https://youtu.be/EFZuYi2oXsM?t=1233
- kodah 4y ago> When it comes to art against tyranny, no work is more seared into our consciousness than Guernica, Pablo Picasso’s dark, howling mural against fascist terror. This is an interesting phrasing when juxtaposed with the title, and one that I think deserves attention, especially on HN. Being "anti-war" is about the worst rhetorical position one can take - nor does it actually reflect the truths of what a sensible person believes about "war". There are bad people in the world, some of those become powerful people and inflict their badness widely. Sometimes you can reason and guide these people but not usually. That's where diplomacy comes in, diplomacy can deter activity away from the source of conflict. Sometimes diplomacy is ignored repeatedly, or worked around. Tensions escalate, stalemates are reached, and the diplomacy tool bag is left empty. War is the last tool available to modern government in order to preserve it's way of life. Categorically, war is a tool to be respected - much like a powerful drug. Its why warrior cultures and ethos grew out of the activity and remain in-tact today around the world. Picasso's piece, to me, was not anti-war - anti-war would mean, in this context, let the person willing to inflict the most violence against me have their way. It's anti-tyrrany, which is what was happening at the time. Words mean things, and I think people that explain things the way this piece starts out do so intentionally, and that is regrettable.
- mc32 4y agoI’m not going to question your premise, I just want to point out that while a small minority they are, many pacifists would submit knowing their fate. Fortunately most people are not pacifists against tyranny.
- w-j-w 4y ago
- mistrial9 4y agodidn't Albert Einstein say something about simultaneously preparing for, and preventing War, is not possible? It hints of an inner psyche truth and also a social-purpose mobilization truth. War professionals win against war amateurs, no doubt about it. But War professionals do not like to hear that they are in fact, making the bed for War and therefore it will come; or that the State will sometimes enact War despite their people, not for them. Someone else said "great literature is about love and war, common paperbacks are about sex and violence" .. there are layers to this and those layers do not necessarily resonate. Truth as we live it contains contradictions. Large contradictions exist in predatory actions versus defense versus justice, and using violence to win political power that brings stability. The arts are personal and the images in Guernica are personal psyche images, to my eye.
- evanlivingston 4y agoOne of my favorite moments for this painting is the time it was hanging in the UN, but was covered while Colin Powell argued for war in Iraq[1] [1]https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2003/02/guer-f08.html https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2003/02/guer-f08.html
- ch4s3 4y agoSome people have no appreciation for irony.
- markdown 4y agoAn entire article about a mural with not a single photo of it? Are we supposed to imagine what it looks like?
- replygirl 4y agodude, it's guernica
- markdown 4y agoNever heard of it before this post. Do westerners really assume the entire world has absorbed all of their culture?
- dboreham 4y agoPhilistines can use Google. See also: https://www.quora.com/Is-Picassos-Guernica-copyrighted-right-now https://www.quora.com/Is-Picassos-Guernica-copyrighted-right...
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- dalanmiller 4y agoI found this painting to be shockingly moving. It’s something you must see in person. Reading the history behind it and standing before this massive tableau is something I’ll never forget.
- kjellsbells 4y agoAnyone interested in this painting could do a lot worse that watch this video presented by old school art historian Francis Frascina. Really enlightening. Frascina used to teach art history on TV for the Open University (TV distance learning) in the 1980s and of all his courses, this is all I can find online despite years of looking. https://youtu.be/vuPNBeWmuSk https://youtu.be/vuPNBeWmuSk
- pawsforthought 4y agoSuch a shame that more is not available, that was an extremely enlightening work of history and analysis. Thanks for sharing. I’m struck by his closing remarks: > Today, the painting is housed in one of the two remnants of the 17th century Buen Retiro Palace, built by Philip IV. The other surviving building is the nearby army museum. It contains the mothballed relics of Spanish militarism, including the massacre at Paracuellos, and other paintings which glorify the Nationalist cause. > The two museums, which represent conflicting but deeply entrenched ideological positions in Spain, are guarded in one form or another by the military. > Guernica, however, is subject to stringent displays of security. Plate glass and steel girders reveal the state’s need to appear open to the emblems of dissent, whilst ensuring their cultural containment.
- Gatsky 4y ago> First in an intensive series of sketches and studies, and then on the giant canvas itself, Picasso’s tableau of horror, with its contorted faces and agonized animals, rapidly took shape; in just 35 days, the thing was done. For any painter, it was an improbable feat. For an artist in his mid-50s whose life was in disarray and who had, just two years earlier, almost stopped painting altogether, it was an astonishing, athletic act of self-reinvention. Only 35 days?? What a force of nature…
- rufus_foreman 4y agoOnly 35 days? Watch "Style Wars" sometime.
- dieselgate 4y agoWow this is a great article, never knew Guernica was panned all around at the beginning. My grandma lived in Madrid during the Spanish civil war and I almost cried when first seeing the painting in person. On a different note it’s amazing this massive mural was shipped around Europe, across the Atlantic, and around the US - and back to Spain. Presumably it’s in panels? Don’t quite remember
- kmote00 4y agoGuernica was the painting that first taught me to appreciate abstract art. Up until then, I had disregarded it as infantile and ugly. This was the painting the taught me that realism isn't always the best way to convey meaning and emotion. It was a stunning and mind-altering realization. Much like how Williams' poem, “The Red Wheelbarrow”[1] introduced me the evocative power of poetry. [1]http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=174770 http://www.poetryfoundation.org/archive/poem.html?id=174770
- yongjik 4y agoAnd then there's Picasso's another lesser known anti-war painting, Massacre in Korea, which is reportedly created as protest against America's role in the Korean War. https://www.pablopicasso.org/massacre-in-korea.jsp https://www.pablopicasso.org/massacre-in-korea.jsp IMHO, it might make the viewers think more about the cruelty of war, because one cannot easily hide behind "Of course they did these horrible things, they were the bad guys!"
- beebmam 4y agoThe travesty of the Korean war is that ideology, both communist/fascist and capitalist, will grind as many humans as necessary into dust to prevent the other side from winning.