I posted this on FB skool page. My mother took me several times to see this painting when it was at MOMA. The sheer size of this painting is staggering. There is a scene in Julian Schnabel's movie Basquiat (excellent movie) where Basquiat's mother takes him to see this painting. I completely related to that scene. When you stand in front of this painting you understand the futility of war. In case you can't read what I wrote in the sketchbook it reads: My mother often took me to see this huge painting and she explained that it showed the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicted on people, especially innocent civilians. It depicts the bombing of the city of Guernica in the Basque region of Spain by German and Italian war planes. During World War Two Picasso was living in Nazi occupied Paris. A Gestapo officer observed a photograph of this painting in Picasso's study and asked him "Did you do this?".
"No, you did" was Picasso's reply.
No comments:
Post a Comment