During World War II, the German military bombed the Basque town of Guernica. Pablo Picasso, a Spanish artist living in France at the time, protested the bombing by painting one of his most famous pieces, Guernica.
History
The Spanish town of Guernica was completely obliterated when the German air force bombed the town on April 26, 1937. The bombing was an experiment by the German military to see how much aerial bombing it would take to destroy an entire town.
Motivation
According to the book "Understanding Art," Pablo Picasso created the painting "Guernica" because he wanted to show the darkness and brutality of the age.
Details
The "Guernica" painting showed the war event in horrifying detail. Among the details in the painting is a woman trapped under rubble, another woman holding her dead child and a terrorized horse bucking and rearing over a dismembered body.
Style
The painting is done is harsh black, whites and grays. It's painted in Cubist style. The technique served to create a distortion and fracturing of the imagery in the work.
Interesting Fact
The German Gestapo once harassed Picasso about the painting, asking if Picasso had done the painting. Picasso replied, "No, you did," according to the Art Knowledge News Website.
