Guernica and The Death of General Wolfe - Essay Example

The republican Forces which were loyal to the newly elected government, were under the attack from a fascist coup which was led by Generalissimo Francisco Franco (Guernica). Prosperity and stability to the people of Spain was a word of promise by Franco, yet only death and destruction were the subjects of deliverance from his side. Anticipating a bold visual protest to Franco's corruption from Spain's most prominent artisans, colleagues and representatives of the democratic government came to Picasso's place in Paris in order to ask him to paint the mural.

Picasso used to avoid politics generally, and used to disdain over political art, though his sympathies clearly fell parallel to the new Republic. The official theme of Paris Exposition is a celebration of the modern technology. The organizers hoped that this vision of a prosperous future will jolt the nations out of the economic depression and social unrest of the thirties (Guernica). With the unfolding of plans, the Aeronautics Pavilion generated huge excitement, featuring the latest technological advances in aircraft design and engineering.

As a result, no one would have ever suspected that this dramatic progress would result in such a dire consequence. On the 27th of April, 1937, unprecedented outrageousness was perpetrated on behalf of Franco against the civilian citizenry of a little Basque village in the northern Spain. The hamlet was pounded with high-explosive and incendiary bombs for over three hours because it was chosen for bombing practice by Hitler's burgeoning war machine.

The town people were cut down as they eloped from the crumbling buildings. Guernica burnt for three days consecutively and sixteen hundred civilians were killed and wounded (Guernica). By the 1st of May, the information of the massacre at Guernica reached Paris, where more than a million protestors flooded the streets to voice their atrocities in the largest May Day demonstration the city had ever come across. The reports of all the eye-witnesses filled the front pages of the news papers of Paris, leaving Picasso stunned by the black and white photographs.

Picasso was appalled and enraged when he rushed through the crowded streets in his studio, and quickly sketched the first images for the mural he called Guernica. This brought an end to his search for an inspiration. From the beginning itself, Picasso chose not to represent the horror in Guernica in realistic or romantic terms. He transferred some key figures such as a woman with outstretched arms, a bull, an agonized horse, which were refined sketch after sketch, and then were brought in to the capacious canvas, which were reworked by him several times.

He quoted that, a painting is not thought out and settled in advance, however, whilst it