Visual Analysis: Pablo Picasso, Guernica

The first reaction I have to Guernica is one of mayhem, or destruction. I think of a lot of lost souls or death. It isn't easy to describe this image but it has some characteristics very easily understood. The entire painting is dark with cool colors and really no sign of warmth. There are scattered distorted figures not exactly looking like humans but many figures taking the human form with faces and apparent disarray. The piece is representational and has asymmetrical balance. The visual elements are used very efficiently in respect to lines and color. The curvature along with the use of lines helps create the chaotic feeling produced even in the midst of such cool and slow colors. There is a lot of overlapping figures and not much space between any, but the shading around helps create the feeling of space. There are implied lines within the shading. The artist likely used a limited palette for this painting. I would say the positive shapes are the lightest of the painting and the negative shapes are the darkest and sometimes even empty shapes.

I would think the use of curvature and lines helps create unity. The point of emphasis is established by using lighter shades in the midst of very dark colors. The focal point is likely the bull like figure in the top left because everything is pointed there and all the faces are looking at it.

I believe the main theme of this piece is to show the devastation that can be caused by chaotic or tragic events and how they can affect more than just a few individuals. I know the artist created this work to in respect to the German bombing of Guernica. He believes the world is beginning into a very violent stage and knew there would be great devastation. Picasso himself said that the meanings of his paintings are to be held within the viewer. Although Picasso had many talents, his painting was his bread and butter so to say. He dominated the painting world and knew his ideas would be more available and impacting as a whole creating a much more effective message.

Guernica achieves the goal of exploiting the tragedy of the bombing Picasso is depicting. There really aren't any distracting elements to weaken the work, in fact all the elements only seem to strengthen the message. My prior knowledge was kinda cheating as a first impression, but my understanding of the power of this particular piece has as I have now analyzed its meaning in its entirety. I can however now explain my first reaction because the meaning directly ties to my impression of chaos and destruction with the inclusion of death and tragedy.