10 Hidden Facts About Picasso’s Guernica

10 Hidden Facts About Picasso’s Guernica

Picassso undoubtedly the father of modern arts and the master of the cubist. Owns several masterpieces and great ideas on his back.But the painting that earned him the title of “Leonardo Da Vinci Of Modern Times” is Gurenica .

Subject Matter:

This masterpiece was created in 1937 by great modern artist Paballo Picasso. This painting is actually a political satire and a voice against the cruelties and casualties of War. Guernica is a town in Biscay. That town was bombed by Nazi’s during Spanish Civil War.


The subject matter of Guernica revolves around that brutal incident of cruelty where several women and children died. This painting is all about the sufferings of war on individuals those are innocent citizens suffer the most. This is an iconic painting by Paballo Piassco which holds a monumental status as an Anti-War symbol and a plea for peace.

Dimensions:

It’s a huge mural size painting with dimensions of 11 ft by 25.6 ft but it is a canvas not a mural.

10 Hidden Facts About Guernica By Picasso
  • This painting is considered to be one of the most important paintings of the era on political subjects matter.It is not only a masterpiece but is a symbolic representation of protest. Silent But Screams. This painting has the power and ability to keep Biscay’s monstrous event alive forever. Picasso was a courageous man and he had a soft heart to protest against that brutal bombing. It is said that once a German army official visited his house and he was living in the Paris which was occupied by Nazi’s. When the official asked him while looking at the picture of that painting “Did You Do That” he smiled and said “No You Did”.
  • Guernica town is located in Picasso country of origin. When he came to know about this monstrous incident he was really moved and touched. He was already working on a commissioned painting for a Paris exhibition that was expected in 1937. It was commissioned by Spanish government. He was already working on an idea but he was not very much convinced with that. When he came to know about this bombing incident he Flipped the idea and decided to paint this Anti War subject matter. It didn’t get much appreciation in the Paris exhibition. But its power was latre acknowledged. As it brought to light the destruction and brutality caused by war and its impact on in innocent beings
  • You might have noticed some newspaper print in this painting. It has a symbolic meaning because the newspaper was the source from where Picasso came to know about this incident.
  • Though Spain was Picasso’s country of origin, he never went back to Spain and lived in Paris for most of his life. Still he was attached with his motherland and had patriotic feelings for it.
  • This priceless masterpiece was once attacked by Tony Shahfrazi who was an anti war artist and activist. While visiting this painting displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of New York he sprayed this painting with red paint. But luckily that paint was wiped by the curators. And that activist named Tony was sent to jail for this criminal act.
  • This painting was brought back to Spain after 1981 with lots of efforts and by that time Picasso was already dead.
  • Gruenica was not originally designed to be monochromatic. But there was a photographer who was allowed to capture the chronicle o f painting progress. Then Picasso saw those images and he realised the actual power of this painting will be in monochromatic flat colours.
  • To depict the starkness and doomness spread after bombing Picasso don’t only use a very limited palette. But also intentionally avoided any gloss in the paints so the Matt finish paint used as a house paint was ordered. and was used to create different shades of black white blue and grey. The combination resulted in this unadorned but outspoken Art piece.
  • There are some hidden images in this painting which you can miss if you can’t study Picasso 4D images. There is a skull composed on a horse torso, you can also see a bull beside the one that is obvious in the painting. It is in the centre under the horse leg. Picasso beautifully and dramatically composed a screaming lady. The most beautiful symbolic representation of the citizens innocent citizens were: those three draggers which were composed in the horse’s mouth instead of his tongue. Beside that there was a departing soul with hands towards heaven.
I hope you will be as amazed to know these facts as I am to share them with you!