Guernica (painting) - Significance and Legacy

Significance and Legacy

Guernica is to painting what Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is to music: a cultural icon that speaks to mankind not only against war but also of hope and peace. It is a reference when speaking about genocide from El Salvador to Bosnia.
— Alejandro Escalona, on the 75th anniversary of the painting's creation

Guernica has become a universal and powerful symbol warning humanity against the suffering and devastation of war. Moreover, the fact that there are no obvious references to the specific attack has contributed to making its message universal and timeless.

The Picasso sketchbooks for the 'Guernica' painting are on display in the Prado Museum in Madrid or the museum next door to it. The first sketches for the famous painting are made in his 1936 sketchbook. The Spanish civil war did not begin until that summer, and Guernica was not bombed until April 1937.

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