Guernica Art Analysis Project

1. Use the vocabulary you have learned in class to describe this artwork or performance in detail.
Guernica by Pablo Picasso is a monochromatic painting in greyscale. The painting itself is chaotic and cluttered with a lot to look at and process, creating a truly thought provoking piece. And with sharp geometric edges, I would consider this painting to be in the cubism category.

2. What processes were used to create this work? What social influences might the artist be responding to and why?
For this piece, Picasso requested a matte house paint, that would have the least amount of gloss to it. And at the time photographer Dora Maar was teaching Picasso a technique of "cameraless photographs" and documenting the process with pictures. Her photographs had inspired Picasso to continue creating the monochromatic piece we see today, because of the black and white immediacy of photographs. He worked on this painting for 35 days ("Guernica").
Picasso was responding to the Civil War that was occurring in Spain and specifically the bombing of Guernica in 1937. It was a political piece created for the 1937 World Fair in Paris. When the fair ended the painting went on a international tour to raise awareness of the war and funds for Spanish refugees (Khan Academy).

3. What is the relationship of this work to the time and society in which it was created? Describe the symbols used to express this relationship.
Like previously mentioned, the use of black and white was a deliberate choice by Picasso to represent a photograph, since back in 1937 photographs were taken in black and white. The bull and the horse that are in Guernica are considered significant symbols in Spanish culture. Lastly, on the far right we see a person screaming with both arms extended up, the person's right hand seems to look like an airplane, which could suggest the aerial bombing that occurred in Guernica on April 26, 1937 ("Guernica").

4. Identify elements in the work that evoke a persuasive or emotional response. Be specific about what those responses are and why.

Each individual face conveys distress adding to the chaos of the painting and setting the tone for the viewer. The woman on the far left is screaming and crying, holding that appears to be a dead child, this really shows the affect wars have on families and children. The man lying across the bottom left, holding a broken sword, he appears in a way to be dead or dying. The dying man can invoke an emotional response to the loss of life during war.

5. Evaluate what you perceive to be the strengths and weaknesses of the work. Apply discipline specific vocabulary and concepts when describing your point of view.

Strengths: Distortion, chaos, symbols embedded in the painting, and exaggeration all help convey what Picasso intended to, the destruction of war.
Weaknesses: In my opinion the overlapping that is happening in the middle of the piece is too much. If Picasso was trying to saying something within that overlapping, I feel like the message is lost for me. If it was just a little bit less than what it is, because it's very hard to determine what is happening in that specific section.



“Picasso, Guernica.” Khan Academy, Khan Academy, www.khanacademy.org/humanities/art-1010/early-abstraction/cubism/a/picasso-guernica.

Wikipedia contributors. "Guernica (Picasso)." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 5 May. 2019. Web. 11 May. 2019.