How did the famous painting guernica, which the US Secretary of State feared, become an "anti-war label"?

On February 5, 2003, new york, outside the meeting room of the UN Security Council, was then US Secretary of State Lin? Powell claimed in The Flash that Saddam Hussein's regime may have produced weapons of mass destruction, and the United States used this as an excuse to declare an attack on Iraq.

Behind Powell is a blue cloth with the emblem of the United Nations. This huge blue cloth hides a tapestry copy of Picasso's masterpiece guernica.

There is no doubt that declaring war in front of such an anti-war masterpiece is full of irony. There is no silver to block "guernica", but it has increased its strength. A large number of protesters held up the "guernica" statue in the street and opposed Powell's behavior.

As a painting, why does guernica have such great power? Can make people who start a war feel scared. How it changed from a work of art to an anti-war label. British scholar James? Attlee's guernica: Picasso's Anger and Reflection on Human War tells you the story behind this masterpiece.

1. Why did guernica come into being?

1937 One day, the Spanish government delegation knocked on the door of Picasso's apartment on 23rd Street in Paris to persuade him to contribute an important work to the Spanish Pavilion of the World Expo, which opened in May.

Just the previous summer, the Spanish army in Morocco led by Franco and General Mora launched a rebellion and the Spanish civil war broke out.

Contrary to guernica's significance as a symbol of peace, the government hopes to end the arms embargo imposed by Britain, France and Germany on Spain and equip an army to fight the rebels.

Picasso, who hated commissioned creation and didn't care about politics, was washed away by the events that happened in the past six months. After hearing the crazy language and barbaric acts of dictator Franco and his followers, he wrote: The Spanish war was a reaction? Against the people and freedom? .

After the air raid in Malaga, his birthplace, Picasso created the etched print "Franco's Dreams and Lies". This image of General Franco is obscene and ridiculous, with one eye and two big nostrils. He is addicted to vanity and cruel instinct, and clearly expresses his feelings for the civil war and the people who caused it.

Just as Picasso was looking for a theme, a tragic event happened:1In April, 937, the German Air Force bombed an unguarded Basque town-guernica. Disintegration, doomsday, blazing fire. Fear spread outward from guernica, and all kinds of news infiltrated Picasso's studio in Paris from the crack of the door like a repressed fog.

During the conversation in Flora Cafe, in the published photos of the ruins, and between the lines of various reports, Picasso learned about the tragic situation of guernica and began to create this famous painting.

2. How was guernica born?

Guernica was written in an open way. Influential artists, writers and other cultural figures are invited to the studio to watch their creative process. Dora Picasso's lover? Mal recorded all the progress of painting in detail with photos.

Interestingly, in the changes of these black-and-white photo records, as the painter himself said? Although the appearance has changed, but the original? Vision? Almost no change. ?

Both the cold bull and the whining horse appeared in the first two sketches and were tossed and turned in the following days. ? A crying woman? Repeatedly appear in the draft, the expression is confused, and the face with tears on the corners of the mouth is constantly adjusted until it is fixed in the picture.

Picasso tried to make the wounded soldier raise a muscular arm and clench a bundle of grain with his fist. And these were finally replaced by something between the eyes and the spotlight, and finally evolved into light bulbs in the manuscript.

This light bulb emits dim light, and the light held by a woman forms two light sources in the painting. Picasso's selective focusing borrowed from his visual tutor Francisco? Goya, Madrid, 3 May, 1808. Picasso said that the light source in Goya's paintings comes from square lanterns placed on the ground? That lamp is death? .

These photos are not only records, but also have an influence on painting. Guernica, this is composed of pictographic elements and themes, according to Mal? Like photos? , reflecting the moment when guernica was destroyed.

/kloc-The creation of the first painting began in May, and the whole creation lasted more than one month. Picasso hates finishing a work. His assistant Robert? Mata's daily job is to try to stop him from painting and drive guernica out of the studio.

3. From artistic masterpieces to anti-war labels

More than 80 years have passed since the creation of guernica, and guernica has surpassed the works of art itself and become an anti-war label, showing great spiritual strength.

In 1960s, "guernica" was exhibited in new york Museum of Modern Art, but the museum was in the midst of a war. The details of this painting often appear on anti-war protest banners and placards, and the room it exhibited became the scene of a vigil against the Vietnam War.

1967, 400 artists and writers petitioned Picasso to take guernica away from the United States. They wrote:? Please withdraw your painting from the United States during the war, so that the spirit of your painting can be carried forward and people can feel the message it wants to convey again. ? Guernica's influence is evident.

Guernica also inspired many artists in later generations. American artist Ringgold once wrote American Series No.20: Death. Like Picasso, she painted a disaster, but the theme was not aerial bombing, but the racial conflict that broke out in the streets of the United States in the 1960s.

This painting obviously draws lessons from the composition of guernica and continues Picasso's distorted cubist style. The grim and desperate faces of the characters in the painting express the painter's strong opposition to racial conflicts and extreme violence.

Today, local wars and violent conflicts are still being staged around the world, but people's pursuit of peace has never stopped. Guernica's existence always reminds future generations why the war started and how painful the human beings paid for peace.