Guernica by Pablo Picasso (Reina Sofia) 1937

Guernica by Pablo Picasso (Reina Sofia)
Year: 1937 | Medium: Oil on canvas | Location: Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid
Famed Spanish artist Pablo Picasso painted one of his best-known works, Guernica, in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. This black and white oil on canvas work depicts suffering humans and animals in the midst of chaotic violence. Picasso painted it at his home in Paris following Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy’s bombing of Guernica, a Basque Country town in Spain. The bombing was requested by Spanish Nationalists of the time.

Guernica’s shocking portrayal of the atrocities of war made it become what art critics call one of the most influential anti-war paintings in history, which has brought necessary attention to the Spanish Civil War. Standing 11’5” tall (3.49 meters) and 25’6” wide (7.76 meters), the huge painting prominently shows a gored horse, a screaming woman, flames, a bull, and dismemberment. Today, the painting hangs in the 20th-century art museum, the Museo Reina Sofía, in Madrid, Spain.