GUERNICA REMEMBERED

Guernica Remembered
April 26, 1937 – Guernica Y Luno – bombardment by Germans – devastation – one-third of the population killed or wounded - … Do these fragments mean anything? Yes- these were the sperms that triggered the fertilization, giving birth to one of the greatest works by Pablo Picasso, the monumental oil painting – “Guernica”. Sounds interesting? What do these fragments mean? Is it denoting some warfare? What was the cause? … To find answers to innumerable questions, let us set out for a journey to Spain, Spain of the 1930’s...
Guernica Y Luno, a town in Northern Spain is the cultural capital of the Basque people. Peace prevailed. However, on July 18, 1936 the Spanish Civil War begins resulting in the formation of two zones – a rebel held Nationalist zone and a Republican or Loyalist zone. A long civil war ensued. Both sides received help from abroad. Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany sent troops, arms and aircraft to aid the nationalists. USSR furnished military equipment to the Loyalists.
The Nationalists tried to conquer Madrid, but were defeated. Following failure at Madrid, Nationalist forces launched a difficult campaign (April to October 1937) to conquer the Basque Country, Austrias and other industrial areas of Northern Spain. The infamous German bombing of Guernica occurred during this campaign.
The bombardment started in the afternoon of April 26, 1937 and lasted for three hours. One-hundred pounds of high explosive and incendiary bombs were dumped over the city of Guernica. It was market day and the majority of the population was present there. Almost one-third of the total population of Guernica were killed or wounded.
By May 1, the news of the massacre reaches Paris, where more than a million protestors flood the streets to condemn against the massacre. Eyewitness reports fill the front pages of Paris newspapers. Picasso, who was in Paris at that time, goes through the stark black and white photographs. He is stunned at the happenings at his motherland and he was stimulated to paint “Guernica”.
The painting “Guernica” was completed in less than two months. The painting was completed in less than two months. The painting does not portray the event, rather, Picasso expressed his outrage by employing such imagery as a bull, a dying horse, a fallen warrior, a mother and a dead child, a woman trapped in a burning building, another rushing into the scene and a figure leaning out from the window and holding out a lamp. Despite the complexity of its symbolism and impossibility of definitive interpretation, “Guernica” makes an overwhelming impact in its portrayal of the horrors of war. It now hangs in Madrid’s museum of the 20th Century Art, the Reina Sofia Art Centre.
This is the seventieth anniversary year of the painting “Guernica”. We cannot contain war at any stage, only the extinction of the World will make it possible. Therefore, until that day “Guernica” will remain communicating silently to the world about the atrocities and aftermaths of war. However, is anyone seeing it, is anyone hearing it, is anyone understanding it? Even if they do, they simply pretend…
Sabarinath Bahuleyan.
sabarinathbahuleyan@gmail.com