Pablo Picasso Guernica

The bombing of Guernica was an aerial attack on April 26, 1937, during the Spanish Civil War by the German Luftwaffe squadron known as the Condor Legion against the Basque city of Guernica. It wasthe first aerial bombardment in history in which a civilian population was attacked with the apparent intent of producing total destruction.

The Condor Legion was assigned aerial missionsthroughout Spain, as Nazi Germany's prime contribution to Francisco Franco's forces. It would appear that the motivation of this particular attack was simply to terrorize the civilian population and todemoralize the Republican side.

Townspeople were cut down as they ran from the crumbling buildings. Guernica burns for three days. Sixteen hundred civilians were killed or wounded.
Picasso,commissioned by the Spanish Republican government to paint a picture to decorate the Spanish Pavilion during the Paris International Exposition (the 1937 World’s Fair in Paris).

But the muralGuernica was not what Pablo Picasso had in mind when he agreed to paint the centerpiece for the Spanish Pavilion. “For three months Picasso had been searching for inspiration for the mural, but theartist was in a sullen mood, frustrated by a decade of turmoil in his personal life and dissatisfaction with his work.”

During the Spanish Civil War, Picasso was living in Paris. By May 1st,news of the massacre at Guernica reached Paris, where more than a million protesters flood, the streets to voice their outrage in the largest May Day demonstration the city had ever seen. Eyewitnessreports filled the front pages of Paris papers. Picasso was stunned by the stark black and white photographs. Appalled and enraged, Picasso rushed through the crowded streets to his studio, where hequickly sketches the first images for the mural Guernica. His search for inspiration was over.

“Three months later, Guernica was delivered to the Spanish Pavilion, where the Paris Exposition...