Scan barcode
xxstefaniereadsxx's review
informative
medium-paced
3.0
Guernica is a painting done by Pablo Picasso. This work was painted at Picasso's home in Paris in 1937 and was created as a response to the bombing of Guernica. The painting is oil on canvas and is currently housed at the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid. This book discusses the creation of the painting, and its movement across the world over the decades. The book also discusses the bombing of Guernica, which was perpetrated by the Nazis and their cohorts. I had seen this painting online before, but never knew the significance, and was very interested in the information the book provided.
mimima's review
informative
slow-paced
3.75
Interesting story of the bombing of Guernica, the painting of Picasso's painting, and the way that has been used in the way that it is display. Read a bit at a time whilst brushing teeth.
lisajoan98's review
dark
hopeful
informative
medium-paced
4.0
Very good and informative read for anyone wanting to better understand why this painting is so significant in the world. I read this whilst visiting Madrid and went to see Guernica in the flesh and was able to appreciate it all the more knowing its story. It also gives plenty of general information about Picasso’s life and some interesting things about politics in Europe and the US at the time as well as the politics of the art world.
eberico's review
5.0
From my blog:
I'm reading Picasso's War. It is so good - just the sort of thing I need to keep the old grey matter going. I can't - I just can't believe the destruction that took place at Guernica. It's beyond words. I was reading about the bombing while on my lunch break yesterday and was so deeply moved. The things humanity does to itself are just astounding. And all of Europe was horrified and up at arms - yet we allow these things to happen again and again. The author, Russell Martin, described the first time he actually saw Guernica - he was at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, where I saw the painting in 2000, on 9/11:
"I looked at Guernica for a long time on that warm September afternoon, joined by thousands of people who had come to Madrid from every part of the world to spend a bit of time in the presence of what is widely regarded as the most important artwork of the twentieth century. None of us was aware as we stood across from the brutal, horrific, yet somehow mesmerizing images of Picasso's war, that in those same moments the twenty-first century had been forced forever onto a new tack, that once more - as had happened in little Gernika - humans had transformed themselves into demons, and other humans suddenly searched for reasons why."
I'm reading Picasso's War. It is so good - just the sort of thing I need to keep the old grey matter going. I can't - I just can't believe the destruction that took place at Guernica. It's beyond words. I was reading about the bombing while on my lunch break yesterday and was so deeply moved. The things humanity does to itself are just astounding. And all of Europe was horrified and up at arms - yet we allow these things to happen again and again. The author, Russell Martin, described the first time he actually saw Guernica - he was at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid, where I saw the painting in 2000, on 9/11:
"I looked at Guernica for a long time on that warm September afternoon, joined by thousands of people who had come to Madrid from every part of the world to spend a bit of time in the presence of what is widely regarded as the most important artwork of the twentieth century. None of us was aware as we stood across from the brutal, horrific, yet somehow mesmerizing images of Picasso's war, that in those same moments the twenty-first century had been forced forever onto a new tack, that once more - as had happened in little Gernika - humans had transformed themselves into demons, and other humans suddenly searched for reasons why."
More...