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Picasso's 'Guernica', a vast grey-and-black canvas of screaming figures, was his response to the 1937 bombing of a Basque town, and a tapestry copy now hangs at the entrance to the UN Security Council.

Art history (Picasso's Guernica)

ArtHistory

The story behind the card

Picasso painted it in a few weeks for the Spanish Republic's pavilion at the 1937 Paris International Exposition, after German and Italian aircraft supporting Franco bombed Guernica on 26 April 1937, killing and wounding hundreds of civilians. He would not let it go to Spain while Franco ruled; it spent decades at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and reached Madrid only in 1981, six years after Franco's death. Since 1992 it has hung in the Museo Reina Sofía. The UN tapestry, commissioned by Nelson Rockefeller in 1955, was hidden behind a blue curtain in February 2003 during press conferences making the case for war in Iraq; officials said television crews had asked for a plainer backdrop.

Türkçe oku
Picasso'nun Guernica'sı, 1937'de bir Bask kasabasının bombalanmasına tepki olarak yaptığı, çığlık atan figürlerle dolu dev bir gri-siyah tablodur. Tablonun goblen kopyası bugün BM Güvenlik Konseyi salonunun girişinde asılı.

26 Nisan 1937'de Franco'yu destekleyen Alman ve İtalyan uçakları Bask kasabası Guernica'yı bombaladı; yüzlerce sivil öldü ya da yaralandı. Picasso tabloyu bunun hemen ardından, aynı yıl açılan Paris Uluslararası Sergisi'ndeki İspanya Cumhuriyeti pavyonu için birkaç haftada yaptı. Franco iktidardayken tablonun İspanya'ya gitmesine izin vermedi; eser uzun yıllar New York'taki Modern Sanat Müzesi'nde kaldı ve Madrid'e ancak 1981'de, Franco'nun ölümünden altı yıl sonra ulaştı. 1992'den beri Museo Reina Sofía'da sergileniyor. Nelson Rockefeller'ın 1955'te yaptırdığı BM'deki goblen ise Şubat 2003'te, Irak'a savaş açılması gerektiğini savunan basın toplantıları sırasında mavi bir perdeyle örtüldü; yetkililer, televizyon ekiplerinin daha sade bir arka plan istediğini söyledi.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Guernica (Picasso)
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