Guernica The Spanish Civil War began with the military rebellion of July 18, 1936, against the government of the Republic, established at the time by the Popular Front, a coalition of leftist parties. Most of the Spanish army, in league with some right-wing parties and the rising fascism of the Falange, and supported by Italy and Germany, began an offensive that culminated in 1939 with the defeat of the Republic and the establishment of the dictatorship of General Franco, that lasted until his death in 1975. At that time Picasso was residing in Paris. He never showed much interest in politics, except perhaps some sympathy for anarchism during the Bohemian period of his youth. Upon his marriage in 1918 with Olga Khokhlova, a Russian exile who fled the Soviet regime and whom he met while she was a ballerina at the Ballets Russes, he began to frequent the aristocratic circles. But once he separated from Olga he also began to distance himself from that environment. His new lover, the photographer Dora Maar as well as the Surrealists with whom he came into contact during those years, especially the poet Paul Eluard, led him to sympathize with the leftist party and the communism. In the early summer of 1936, he designed the backdrop for the work of Romain Rolland,14 Juillet, that was a celebration of the Popular Front s triumph in France. And when the Civil War broke out, Picasso goes immediately in favor of the Republic. In 1937, the Spanish government decided to participate to the International Exhibition that was going to open in May of that year in Paris. Although the country was in an extreme situation, it was thought to be an act of propaganda, a call for attention that would pave the way to international support. The Pavilion was an architectural gem designed by Jose Luis Sert and Luis Lacasa; inside, there were presented photomontages, crafts and costumes, as well as paintings and sculptures done by the leading Spanish artists of the time. Picasso participated with several sculptures, with the series of two prints and text called "Dreams and Lies of Franco "(copies of which went on sale) and the mural "Guernica". From the outset, the Government of the Republic, thought that the collaboration with Picasso, as a Spanish and and as one of the most valued artists of the time, was essential. To do this, he was appointed Director of the Prado Museum, a position that he gladly accepted, and he was asked for his participation at the Pavilion. In January 1937, he was commissioned to do a mural that would be the cornerstone of the building. Picasso accepted though, for a long time, he remained paralyzed, not knowing how to undertake the work. Actually, because of personal problems (he was still married to Olga and yet, he maintained relations with two other women, Marie- Thérèse Walter and Dora Maar) he had not painted for a year. On the other hand, he never liked orders, nor had he ever painted works of such size, nor he was interested in politically militant art.
On February 8, 1937 Malaga was conquered by the insurgents, and the writer Arthur Koestler, who witnessed everything, would describe to Picasso the scenes in which women and children were running on the road, trying to escape, and were machinegunned from the air, scenes that might serve him then to paint the women holding dead children in their arms, illustrated in "Guernica". In April he began to draw sketches, apparently based on one of his favorite themes : the painter's studio, the painter and the model... But on 27 of April, the German air force, serving the rebel army and as a preview of further action, bombed and reduced to ashes Guernica, a small Basque town where a famous historical tree was preserved, a symbol of the nationalism and, in general, of the Basque traditions. The following day, all the newspapers echoed the brutality of the action. It was the first major attack against a civilian population and the world was moved. The town of Guernica was not a military objective and it was mostly populated by women, children and old people. Moreover, it was market day and people were all in the street and they were caught completely off guard. The destruction was almost complete. Picasso, like all the Spanish people, lived the tragedy with horror and anger. For a few days he did not return to work, probably thinking that there was no sense in continuing with his project on the "Painter's Workshop". On the 1 st of May, on Labor Day, he resumes his activity, focusing now on the subject of the tragedy of Guernica, with a series of pencil sketches. With an unstoppable force, for ten days, he made 21 drawings and paintings which were studies of composition and of specific figures. On May 11 he moves his ideas to the large canvas, but at the same time he continues experiencing possible ways of depicting each of the "characters", with a total of 25 new sketches. The process of making of the painting itself is documented in a series of 8 photographs which Dora Maar took, capturing several moments of its conception and development. In early June, the large canvas 349.3 x 776.6 cm., executed in oil, is finished. Picasso has brought to light one of the most important paintings, and probably the one with the greater political significance of all time. Much has been commented on the symbolism of "Guernica". Indeed, Picasso did not paint a scene of war: only the name may be associated with an episode of war in Spain. There is no bombardment, there are no conventional weapons or soldiers. But, however, his dramatic power is undeniable. It is a cry of horror and passion. Shortly after its completion "Guernica" began raising speculations about its meaning. The controversy continued to develop over the years, especially in two particular directions: for some, the bull represented the brutality and the horse represented the people, for others it was exactly the opposite. In 1947, Picasso stated: "This bull is a bull and this horse is a horse (...) Of course, they are symbols. But it is not the painter s job to create symbols; in order to create symbols it would be better to write a lot of words, instead of painting them. The audience that looks at the picture should see in the horse and the bull symbols that they should interpret in their own manner of understanding. " Today, critics tend to see "Guernica" as a mixture of personal and collective symbols, the result of his artistic feeling and of his sensitivity, in which the myth, roots and history of a people converge. For example, we can trace the influences of the Spanish Romanesque art, that Picasso admired and was acquainted with. And the
most dramatic aspect of the Catholic religion comes up in a small oil painting, "The Crucifixion" (1930), which, due to its composition and some of its elements, can be considered as an antecedent of "Guernica". On the other hand, during the thirties, he obsessively repeated the themes of the bullfight myth, of the bull and the Minotaur, associating them with his own experiences at a time that he himself described as the worst of his life. He portrayed himself as a bull or as a Minotaur, identifying with its powerful criminal and sexual instinct, but also with its tenderness, with its telluric and abysmal suffering. The Minotaur is human and animal at the same time, a bloodthirsty beast and a miserable actor in a relentless drama. The horse, however, can also be a victim or an executioner, and the bullfighter is usually woman, with the features of his partner, Marie-Thérèse. The expression of these obsessions is embodied in a work that turns out to be the clearest and closest antecedent of "Guernica", "Minotauromaquia", a print made in 1935. Its symbolic and iconographic complexity is huge, but there is a fact that calls a lot of attention: we are talking about an etching, therefore Picasso drawn it on the plate in reverse of how it was stamped, and if we look at the mirrored version we can see that its composition is exactly the same as in "Guernica". Therefore, in this work and several others completed during the same years, there are, already recombined in different ways, all the ingredients of the large mural of 1937. "Guernica" reunites as in a final apotheosis- the characters of that mythic bullfight that the painter incessantly represented for years. But the ritual of love and death have changed: there are no more victims and executioners, nor silent or compassionate witnesses, but only blind destruction in a tragedy which is no longer private for the artist but it has become collective and total. SUBSEQUENT HISTORY OF GUERNICA Herschel B. Chipp, undoubtedly one of the most qualified critics of the great mural (Picasso's Guernica. History, transformations, meaning. Barcelona, Polígrafa, 1991, p. 154), said that, once the International Exhibition of Paris was closed, on November 1, 1937, "[...] it was rumored that Picasso himself had repeatedly insisted that Guernica should be sent to Madrid, a statement which he later formulated in written. " This large canvas was subjected to a lot of travel, in a little amount of time, due to its participation in numerous exhibitions. The first one was an exhibition which comprised 118 works by Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, Henri Laurens, and Picasso, organized by the Paris gallery director, Paul Rosenberg. From January to April 1938 the works were presented in a tour exhibition in Norway, Denmark and Sweden. After remaining, apparently, a few months in the artist's studio, in September 1938, Guernica was sent, along with many of its preparatory drawings to the National Joint Commitee for Spanish Relief, headquartered in London, for fundraising. The painting was also exhibited in other English cities. Later, Picasso decided to send the painting and the preparatory sketches to New York. The voyage took place on the French ship
Normandie-on which there was also the president of the republican government in exile, Juan Negrin, and ended on May 1, 1939. The painting continued to take part in several exhibitions in the United states, always with the intention of raising money for the Spanish political refugees. The first exhibition was the one that opened at Valentine Gallery from New York, held by The American Artists Congress. After the exposition was closed, a three-month tour was organized, in some of the most important cities of United States, like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Chicago, among others. These expositions provoked a lot of controversy both from an artistic and a political point of view, due to its content, coinciding with the outbreak of the Second World War (September 1, 1939) and to the debate that emerged around the picture about the defense of modern art, which in those moments was being attacked by the press and the American critics. Before the end of 1939, Guernica was exhibited again in New York's Museum of Modern Art, which had just opened, being a part of a retrospective of the artist's work: Picasso: Forty Years of His Art. On this occasion, the mural could be analyzed in the context of the general work of Picasso, and, from being a symbol Spanish Civil War it had come to be considered a cornerstone of the twentieth century art. Due to the outbreak of the Second World War, Picasso decided that the painting, along with other works that made up the retrospective at MoMA, should remain in the custody of the museum during the war. With the artist s agreement and that of Alfred Barr, the museum s director, although most of the time against the judgment of conservators and restorers, Guernica was lent for several exhibitions, during the decade of the forties, such as those held at the Chicago Art Institute (1940), in the Gallery of Fine Arts in Columbus, Ohio (1941) or in the Fogg Art Museum in Cambridge, Massachusetts (1942). In 1953, the painting traveled to Milan to take part in a major exhibition dedicated to Picasso at the Palazzo Reale. From Italy it crossed the Atlantic again to participate in the II Art Biennial of Sao Paulo between December 1953 and February 1954. Only one year later, in June 1955, it would return to Europe again, to participate in Paris, in a retrospective dedicated to the author, followed by an extensive exhibition tour in museums of Germany, Belgium, Holland and Denmark. During 1957 and 1958 the painting was included in the Picasso 75 th Anniversary Exhibition, held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA) and later in Chicago and Philadelphia. From that time until its permanent move to Spain, the painting did not participate again in any other exposition held outside the MoMA and the only trip to which it was subjected was that of its permanent move from New York to Madrid, which took place on September 9, 1981. Previously, the same day on September 9, it was signed in New York an agreement between MoMA and the Spanish government to formalize the transfer of ownership of the painting and of the preparatory works related to it. The official presentation took place on October 24, 1981 in Madrid, at the Cason del Buen Retiro. In July 1992, the painting was to be moved from the Cason to its final location, the National Art Museum Reina Sofia. Finally, on the last day of November 1995 the glass that had protected the painting since its arrival in Spain was removed.
Regarding the decision that MoMA took in 1958, that of not allowing anymore loaning Guernica for expositions, Herschel B. Chipp, commented, in a text included in the volume published on the occasion of the return of Guernica to Spain (" The Genesis and first representations of Guernica. " Guernica-Picasso Legacy, Madrid, Department of Fine Arts, Archives and Libraries of the Ministry of Culture, 1981, p. 124): "[Picasso] [...] asked the museum not to lend Guernica for expositions anymore, due to the obvious damage that the painting had suffered. The only change of location would occur in 1964, when the painting was transferred to the third floor of the museum, where it has remained until September 9, 1981. Further requests for exhibition in other countries were rejected in advance by the museum, according to Picasso s wish." According to Alfred Barr, in 1958, Picasso extended the loan to MoMA for an indefinite period of time. However, it was clear that the artist wanted Spain to be the final destination of the painting. Thus, on the 14 of February,1970, he wrote to the New York museum, eliminating the clause that conditioned the return of the painting as soon as the Republic would be restored, and replaced it with another one that said: "When civil liberties would be restored in Spain "adding also that "You do understand that my desire has always been to see this work and the pieces that accompany it, back to the Spanish people. " (Chipp, Herschel B.: Picasso's Guernica. History, transformations, meaning. Barcelona, Polígrafa, 1991, p. 171; Original version in French published in LP, p. 160). Given these circumstances and according to the intention of the author, since the painting went back to Spain, all the loan requests have been denied, among them including: That for the Olympic Games in Barcelona in1992. The one conducted by The Yomiuri Shimbun, Tokyo (September 28, 1994), for the exhibition commemorating the 50 th anniversary of end of the Second World War in 1995. The petition requested by the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, when the exhibition Devant l'histoire was held, from December 1996 to April 1997. The room devoted to Pablo Picasso is the cornerstone of the Permanent Collection of the National Museum Reina Sofia Art Center, both because of the importance of this artist in the history of art of our century, and because of the quality of the works of E1 are exposed. Of all these works, Guernica is the central piece, not only from an artistic point of view, but also due to its symbolic significance, since this is one of the emblematic pieces of art in the history of the twentieth century art. Exhibitions in which "Guernica" participated: 1937. Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne. Paris, Spanish Pavilion, July 12-November 25. 1938. [Exhibition of Picasso's Guernica]. Oslo, Kunstnernes Hus / / Copenhagen, Statens Museum for Kunst / / Stockholm Konsthall Liljevaich/ / Gothenburg, Konsthallen, from January to April. 1938. Exhibition of Picasso '! "Guernica" by Picasso. London, New Burlington Galleries, 4-29 October / / Leeds (England) / / Liverpool. 1938-1939. [Exhibition of Picasso's Guernica]. London, Whitechapel Art Gallery, 31
December 1938 to mid-january 1939 / / Manchester, February 1939. 1939. Picasso: Guernica. New York, Valenrine Gallery, May 5-27. 1939. Picasso's Masterpiece Guernica and 63 Related Paintings and Drawings. Los Angeles, Stendahl Art Galleries, August 10-21 / / San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Art, August 28-September 18 / / Chicago, Arts Club, 1-10 October. 1939-1941. Picasso: Forty Years of His Art, New York, Museum of Modern Art, 15 November 1939-7 January 1940 / / Chicago, Chicago Art Institute, February 1-March 3, 1940 / / St. Louis, City Art Museum, March 16-April 14, 1940 / / Boston Museum of Fine Arts, April 26-May 25, 1940 / / San Francisco, San Francisco Museum of Art, June 25-July 22, 1940 / / Cincinnati, Cincinnati Museum of Art, September 28-October 27, 1940 / / Cleveland, Cleveland Museum of Art, November 7-December 8, 1940 / / New Orleans, Isaac Delgado Museum, 20 December 1940-17 January 1941 / / Minneapolis, Minneapolis Institute of Arts, February 1-March 2, 1941 / / Pittsburgh, Carnegie Institute, March 15-April 13, 1941. 1941. [Masterpieces of Picasso]. New York, Museum of Modern Art, 16 July- September7. 1941. Cambridge, Fogg Art Museum, September 24-October 20. 1941. Columbus, Ohio, Gallery of Fine Arts, 4-30 November. 1942. Cambridge, Fogg Art Museum, June 26-September 15. 1953-1954. Picasso. Milan, Palazzo Reale, 20 September-20 November 1953 / / II Art Biennial, Sao Paulo, December 13, 1953 - February 20, 1954. 1955. Picasso:Peintures, 1900-1955. Paris, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, June to October. 1955-1956. Picasso. Munich, Haus der Kunst, 25 October-26 December 1955 / / Cologne, Rheinisches Museum, December 30 1955-29 February 1956 / / Hamburg, Kunsthalle, 10 March-29 April 1956. 1956. Guernica. Brussels, Palais des Beaux Arts, May-June / / Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, July 14-September 30. 1956. Guernica. Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, October 19-December 21957-1958. Picasso 75th Anniversary Exhibition. New York, Museum of Modern Art, May 22- September 8 / / Chicago, Art Institute of Chicago, October 29-December 8, 1957 //Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art, January 8- February 23, 1958. Documentation Center of Picasso Foundation and Birthplace Museum. Translated by Laura Stratone.