Guernica, by Pablo Picasso, 11 x 25.6 feet, oil on canvas, 1937
Pablo Picasso painted his massive work, Guernica, in passionate response to the bombing of the Spanish Basque town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. German planes, in support of Francisco Franco's Nationalist forces, blanket-bombed the men, women and children of the town. Picasso explained the work as being in response to: “history’s first aerial bombardment of a civilian population."
George L. Steer, a special correspondent for the London Times, wrote this report of the attack:
Guernica, the most ancient town of the Basques and the center of their cultural tradition, was completely destroyed yesterday afternoon by insurgent air raiders. The bombardment of this open town far behind the lines occupied precisely three hours and a quarter, during which a powerful fleet of aeroplanes consisting of three German types, Junkers and Heinkel bombers and Heinkel fighters, did not cease unloading on the town bombs weighing from 1,000lb. downwards and, it is calculated, more than 3,000 two-pounder aluminium incendiary projectiles. The fighters, meanwhile, plunged low from above the center of the town to machine-gun those of the civilian population who had taken refuge in the fields. ....
At 2 a.m. today when I visited the town the whole of it was a horrible sight, flaming from end to end. The reflection of the flames could be seen in the clouds of smoke above the mountains from 10 miles away. Throughout the night houses were falling until the streets became long heaps of red impenetrable debris.":
In his painting, Picasso presents us with a jumble of confusion.
A fallen warrior, his mouth agape.
A mother wails, clasping the body of her dead child. She is under a bull.
A mother wails, clasping the body of her dead child. She is under a bull.
A screaming horse beneath a light bulb.
Just like the event it memorializes, the painting makes no sense.
Has anything changed?
Here, from news agency al Jazeerah: Libyan warplanes were bombing indiscriminately across Tripoli on Monday, a resident of the Libyan capital told al Jazeera television in a live broadcast."What we are witnessing today is unimaginable. Warplanes and helicopters are indiscriminately bombing one area after another. There are many, many dead," Adel Mohamed Saleh said.
Has anything changed?
Here, from news agency al Jazeerah: Libyan warplanes were bombing indiscriminately across Tripoli on Monday, a resident of the Libyan capital told al Jazeera television in a live broadcast."What we are witnessing today is unimaginable. Warplanes and helicopters are indiscriminately bombing one area after another. There are many, many dead," Adel Mohamed Saleh said.
No, not much has changed. Only the technology keeps improving.
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