by Pablo Picasso
“…this bull is a bull and this horse is a horse… If you give a meaning to certain things in my paintings it may be very true, but it is not my idea to give this meaning. What ideas and conclusions you have got, I obtained too, but instinctively, unconsciously. I make the painting for the painting. I paint the objects for what they are.” – Picasso
At first glance, Guernica is rife with chaos in a monochromatic scheme. The muted grey, white, and black tones work as a commentary on the grief that plagued Guernica. Guernica scholar, Anthony Blunt has published the most notorious analysis of the mural’s composition, and has delineated the figures of the mural into two groups: animals and humans. The former consists of three motifs- first the bull, then the wounded horse, and finally the winged bird. The second group includes a mother crying to the heavens with her dead infant in her arms, a dismembered soldier, and various body parts. Further symbolism can be found in the evil eye that houses the light bulb. Picasso’s homage to the suffering of the innocent people of Guernica during the fires and bombings during the Spanish Civil War is a complex and multi-faceted memorialization of the lives lost. Measuring twenty-five by eleven feet the mere size of the mural is a statement on the vast amount of damage caused by the bombings.