The Power of Art?

February 6, 2003 12:59 PM

The Power of Art? This interesting article becomes extremely clever if you think about some of the basic history of "Guernica". Little-known artist Picasso (see '37 for initial ideas, '45 for completed painting) was commissioned to paint it after the horrific slaughters of the Spanish Civil War. “...Picasso's tour de force would become one of this century's most unsettling indictments of war.” (more inside)
posted by valval22 (11 comments total)

Notes: Link from commondreams.org. Title of post from my friend e*. How does it "become extremely clever" you ask? Well, "Guernica" was painted in black and white. The author of said article uses blocks of colors to represent different countries in the UN.... Why did Picasso paint it in black and white? Because, being in Paris at the time, his experience of Guernica was through media (either newspaper photos or a documentary of a family in Guernica), thus the inspiration for a black and white painting. What does media have to do with anything? Ask yourself.
posted by valval22 at 1:04 PM on February 6, 2003

Oops, forgot these:
Spanish Civil War
Guernica
posted by valval22 at 1:08 PM on February 6, 2003

An artist's conception of what they didn't want us to see.
posted by homunculus at 1:59 PM on February 6, 2003

Mr. Powell can't very well seduce the world into bombing Iraq surrounded on camera by shrieking and mutilated women, men, children, bulls and horses.
posted by signal at 2:00 PM on February 6, 2003

Solid post, but we did discuss this before.
posted by muckster at 2:20 PM on February 6, 2003

Much more intresting the the previous post about the topic. Let it live!!
posted by betaray at 2:23 PM on February 6, 2003

Little-known artist Picasso
I assume you mean at the time he painted Guernica?
posted by mary8nne at 3:26 PM on February 6, 2003

Little-known artist Picasso

This is just silly; he'd been famous for almost 20 years, since he and Braque founded Cubism. Sample quote: "Ever since Picasso became famous after the first world war..."
posted by languagehat at 4:39 PM on February 6, 2003

Mary8nne, languagehat: I think that was sarcasm. I pictured the folks responsible saying, "It's just Picasso. Who'll notice?"

Thanks for the more extensive articles, valval22.
posted by hippugeek at 8:35 PM on February 6, 2003

Thanks, hippugeek, I thought the sarcasm was blatant. Around the time he painted "Guernica" he was the most (in)famous artist in the world, probably comparable to, I dunno, Michael Jackson in our time; not just an artist, but a character - partly due to the fact that he was slightly unbalanced and kind of an asshole. There was hype about him that he simply encouraged.

PS - I did try to see if it was a repeated post, and failed. Sorry 'bout that!
posted by valval22 at 6:04 AM on February 7, 2003

The Toronto Star: The Lessons of Guernica
posted by muckster at 3:18 PM on February 9, 2003