Gruernica
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In 1937, Pablo Picasso depicts an epic event in history in his “Guernica” using visual symbolism, line, space, light and color which advocates to the observer the truth behind the subject matter of the artwork itself. The line used leads to specific images to tell the story; the space throughout the work is filled with many jagged and sharp shapes with an odd use of positive and negative space. The light and color illuminate the actual scene. Knowing and understanding how the artist uses these three fundamental tools will guide us to the meaning and logic of the artwork.
Pablo Picassos use of line gives a sense of direction almost as key to unlock the meaning of the artwork. In our culture we read from left to write. The artist knows this and points us directly left were we see a bull, in a frightened frozen stare as if we are looking at the events taking place from its point of view, putting us in the shoes as a victim helpless to do nothing, unable to escape, and bulls being color blind leads to why we viewing everything in black and white. The bull leads us down to two ghastly images. One image is a mother holding here dead child, the other an extended arm that leads us right to a soldiers severed head and his severed arm with a broken sword. Immediately after seeing these disturbing images we come to see that some kind of event took place that involved the military and deaths of innocent people. The tip of the broken sword brings us up to two more images, a woman who seems to be severely injured staring up at the next image of a woman holding a candle next to a light fixture. The woman staring up at the light seems desperate for a change, but accepts her own fate, taking one last look at the light before it is extinguished, directing us to the candle and the light fixture, which illuminates our final image of the horse. Now combined with the images of the candle, the light fixture and the horse we gather that, by definition, the horse is the most economically important domesticated animal and was diminished due to mechanization. The candle next to the light shows us a change in technology, advocating the death of the horse with a spear in the side, as the destruction of Spains cultural origins. Finally we see the horse leading us back to the bull where between both heads we see the spirit flying away alerting us that soul and spirit is being ripped away, that death is coming no matter if it is in a bull fight or a battle, everything that lives will die.
Picassos use of space in this masterpiece leads to similar conclusions to pain, suffering and the eventual death of an ancient city or any living thing. This piece is extremely vivid and the use of space used is probably breaking all the rules of art, but if we think about what we are actually seeing we are not really looking at just art, we are looking at inhumane events in the world and it almost holds an obligation to exploit the boundaries of art to get the desired effect which the artist has done intentionally. Most art