Guernica

Today I went to the Reina Sofia art museum to see the Picasso exhibit before it ends in September. The majority of the works were sketches and pieces related to his famous painting Guernica or pieces that were created in the same period. It was really serendipitous to see this exhibit right after visiting the Basque Country and reading about what happened in the town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War as part of that experience.

The painting did not really move me when I first arrived to the exhibit. I've never really been a big Picasso fan, and I was like, great, another confused and incoherent work - done in black, white and gray tones, nonetheless. Then, I continued on to the rest of the exhibit and looked at all of the sketches and studies that led up to Guernica. When I returned to look at the painting at the end, it all came together for me, and I was really really moved. I had read previously about the agony and suffering portrayed in the painting and about the allegories of the bull as Spain and the horse as Francisco Franco (according to experts, Picasso refused to interpret the symbolism), and finally it all came together.

You can read more about the painting and see an image of it here. You can read about the town in the Basque Country of Spain and the horrible things that happened there during the Spanish civil war here. The museum has a web page that shows images of some of the other important works in the exhibition.