Guernica

A young woman screams and throws her hands in the air. Everyone is running for their lives causing a major stampede and even more panic. The city is burning, but still it’s dark. Pandemonium. Chaos and disorder. Fear. People are running everywhere to escape but nobody is getting anywhere. A crying mother holds on to her baby.

In the late afternoon on an average April-day in 1937 the city of Guernica was destroyed by an aerial bomb attack, leaving hundreds of civilians dead and wounded. This brutal attack, which took place during the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) inspired Picasso to paint a vivid picture of what happened that day in Guernica.

Guernica (Pablo Picasso, 1937)

When I was still in primary school, my class was given the cultural/art assignment to paint a life-sized version of Picasso’s Guernica. The class was split up in groups and each group had to paint a part of the whole painting. Even though the painting is in black/white tones, I still remember how hard it was to get the colours and tones right. Try to imagine yourself as a 12 year old, standing in front of such a big paining you made with your classmates. The whole thing was so impressive; those black/white tones and so many lines, faces and other mysterious events happening inside the frame. Even though wasn’t the real thing, something about it grabbed me. It may have been over 13 years ago, but I’ve wanted to see Guernica ever since.

Needless to say, Guernica was the #1 thing on my to-see list when I booked my tickets to Madrid. I would arrive in Madrid late Monday afternoon, and I’d leave around noon on Wednesday. There was only one minor problem I hadn’t foreseen. Guernica is exhibited in Museo Reina Sofia, which is opened Monday to Saturday from 10:00 until 22:00 and Sundays from 11:00 until 14:30. Open every day, except Tuesday. That’s just my luck; the one thing I absolutely wanted to see in Madrid was in a museum that’s closed on the one (full) day I’d be there.

Well, luckily my flight on Wednesday was around noon, so I checked in my luggage early in the morning and at 11:10 I walked into the Reina Sofia museum, on my way to Guernica. In my best Spanglish (Spanish/English) I asked where the paining was, and after running through what seemed like a maze of white walls, corners and turns I finally found her somewhere on the second floor.

Wow.

Guernica is powerful. Of course it’s impressive to see a painting of such a size all alone on a wall in a big white room with two guards in front of it to make sure no one stands too close, but this painting has something more impressive than just that. The use of black/white tones is very strong, and Picasso’s style emphasises the chaos and confusion the people of Guernica must have felt during the aid raid. There’s so much going on in the painting; a black bird is trying to fly towards the light, the bull looks puzzled about what’s happening and a dead man’s hand still grips a broken sword.

It’s 1937. The setting is in a town that was just bombed. People lost their lives, others are wounded or are trying to escape. Picasso’s Guernica expresses that desperation and fear amidst the chaos so incredibly well, but at the same time it shows there’s still a little bit of hope, no matter how small. The painting is beyond impressive. If you understand what happened between the oil and the canvas, you will feel what’s happening in this scene.

Guernica in Reina Sofia

If you’re ever in Madrid, I recommend you to go see this impressive artwork. Even if you only have a few minutes spare, I literally had 15 minutes to see Guernica, it’s absolutely worth seeing.

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Guernica
Pablo Picasso, 1937

Oil on canvas
Size: 349 cm by 776 cm
Exhibited in Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid

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Read more about Guernica and Picasso’s painting:
Guernica and Total War by Ian Patterson
Guernica: The Biography of a Twentieth-century Icon by Gijs van Hensbergen
Picasso’s War: The Destruction of Guernica and the Masterpiece That Changed the World by Russell Martin