A Visual Analysis of Pcasso's Guernica

In this week's reading in Coming to Our Senses led me to an in depth analysis of Picasso's oil painting Guernica. I have studied on the surface, and seen this copies of this painting before. I think it is a very interesting and deep piece of art, if given the correct information, and the time to ponder it.

First, the book discusses the critical limitations of painting; that any interpretation, except one based on the most obvious and mundane issues, is open to conjecture and modification. Each individual brings a different expectation and gleans a different meaning from the same work. I noticed the comment of Ellen C. Oppler, an expert on Picasso's Guernica, "...in spite of the fact that Guernica is Picasso's best-known painting and one of the masterpieces of our time, "yet it is a problematic work, stylistically complex, with images difficult to decipher, whose meaning is unclear." Picasso even commented on his own art basically saying that he doesn't plan the painting before he sketches. "While it is being done it changes as one's thoughts change." Even when it is done, it keeps changing for every person who chooses to view the piece. Later in the section Picasso says, "basically a pictures doesn't change...the first 'vision; remains almost intact."

Second, the medium of a painting describes very well what the artist if trying to say through line and color. I had never noticed the significance of the vertical, horizontal, diagonal, and curved lines in a painting until I read this chapter. One fact I found interesting was that even though iol was a well-used material for painting, this painting by Picasso is larger than previous oil paintings at that time in history. Oil paint is said to be remarkably simple in terms of materials used, in spite of its extremely complex and profound meanings. I learned, while reading, that straight lines coming together at sharp points tend to create life-threatening images. That may seem obvious to some of you, but it was new to me! The original painting had swatches of colored, patterned cloth and wallpaper on it, adding a color dimention to the otherwise bleak white, grey, nad black design. These pieces of cloth were removed along with the red tears that were on the running woman's face have been removed, leaving the painting monochromatic. The monochromatic color scheme ended up providing a vivid symbol for the basic theme of the painting: the grey ash of death.

Lastly, the form and symbolic meanings of Guernica. Frank D. russell suggests, in the reading, that the structural organization of Guernica combines in uneasy tension the competing values of classical restraint and romantic fervor. I thought it was interesting that the triangle in the middle of the painting is representative of the triangle being the favoredd form in both Greekclassicism (pediments) and the Italian Renaissance (pyramidal patterns). I love how that little piece of information connects beautifully with our recent discussions of architecture in class. A symbol in the painting that I liked the most was the horse, which to Picasso represented "the people", in a Christian context seems to represent Christ. I thought this was an interesting point to ponder. The threatning electric light above the horse's head suggest as much: an eye (God's all-seeing eye maybe). What I didn't notice before was that the spear piercing the horse's side is another visual connection to Christ's wounds on the cross.

I thouroughly enjoyed my reading and anaysis of Picasso's Guernica oil painting, and I can't wait to here more of what significance color, line, form, and symbolism have in paintings, and other art forms.