Guernica

Guernica
I love art. I love to try and feel what the artist was trying to convey. To be honest, I think some great art is trying to convey that the artist was bored...or in some cases just insane (see Salvador Dali). But much of the great art of the world is very expressive of a time or a place or an emotion. That is what Guernica is to me...a masterpiece of emotion and feelings perfectly placed on the giant canvas.
I first saw a picture of Guernica in a high school history class. There was something about it that just grabbed me. I learned that it was Picasso's attempt to show the horrors of war. Back in those days it was an ever present reality for young boys in high school with the threat of graduating and then being packed off to Vietnam to face them head on. We got/had to see the horrors daily as we watched the news of our older brothers coming home in a box. Later administrations thought this was not a good idea in order to minimize the horrors of war. But none the less, we were keenly aware of what our future held for us.
Seeing in person the epic work face to face in Madrid's Museo de Sofia, brought me again to that deep emotion of just how horrible war can be. The story is that Picasso was supposed to creat a piece of art to represent Spain at a worlds fair type of deal. He was uninspired and had no idea of what to paint. It was just 30 days before the event and still no idea...until he heard the news of a little village in northern Spain that was bombed by the Germans and Italians during the Spanish civil war. Many innocent people, just going about their day, until they became fodder for a few people trying to gain power over the masses. A terrible tragedy. Picasso poured that emotion out onto an 11'x25' canvas and finished the work in time to make a bold statement of protest.

Sometimes, we just need to be reminded of how ugly life can be. To use a medium like paint and canvas to speak out against the ills of our society. Sometimes something so beautiful can remind us of just how horrible we can be. And sometimes something so ugly can remind us of how wonderful we can be as we'll.