Cheng Mei Ling talks on Pablo Picasso: Guernica (1937)

 

Individual presentation (5 minutes max) – 30%

Discuss the work you have chosen in some detail. Show that you have read about the work in the required reading and that you have also read additional materials that you have found independently. Unless you have a special reason, do not include the biography of the artist in this brief talk. In the best presentations it will be clear that the speaker has thought deeply about one work of art and what s/he has read about it, forming his/her own opinions about what it means, and how this meaning is communicated.

A good presentation will include:

• full details of the work – artist, title, year, medium, dimensions
• an explanation of how the work fits into a broader style or movement (eg Realism) and the specific historical context (eg the mid 19^th century in France).
• A description of the work
• one key quote about the work in question
• why this work interests you/ your own opinion of the work

• names of authors, titles of articles, books or websites (and publication information) that are especially relevant to this work
• a thought-provoking question about the work for the class

For the full details of the work, Guernica was painted by Pablo Picasso in the year of 1937 and the dimensions are 349cm x 776cm(137.4 in x 305.5 in).

The style of Guernica is Cubism. In Guernica, Picasso combined Analytic and Synthetic Cubist forms with several traditional motifs, justaposting them in a new surrealist way.

Cubism was a 20th century avant-garde art movement, pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.

Guernica fits into Cubism because Guernica has Cubist geometric shapes and sharp angles, objects are broken up, analyzed, and reassembled in an abstracted form. There are distortions of body and face in Guernica. For example, eyes are twisted, ears and noses are out of place, tongues are shaped like daggers palms and feet are slashed. It has shallow ambiguous space. The background and object planes interpenetrate one another. There are multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject and the surfaces intersect at seemingly randomangles, removing a coherent sense of depth.

For the historical context of Guernica, it is a painting by Picasso, in response to the bombing of Guernica, Basque Country by German and Italian warplanes at the behest of the spanish National forces in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. It shows the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians. This hidden"work has gained a monumental status, becoming a perpetual reminder of the tragedies of war, an anti-war symbol, and an embodiment of peace.

For the descriptions of Guernica, it is gray, black and white, a mural-size canvas painted in oil. Guernica can be divided into three sections, a central triangle, an approximate rectangle on either side. It shows suffering people, animals, and buildings wrenched by violence and chaos and the overall scene is within a room. There are two "hidden" images, a human skull and a bull. The dying horse represents Liberty andexpression of hope. The falling woman presents Christ's Crucifixion. The Minotaur presents the tyrant at that time and the woman holding a dead baby represents the scene of Pieta. That is the scene that Mary supporting the dead Christ.

For the quote, Art historian Patricia Failing said, "The bull and the horse are important characters in Spanish culture. Picasso himself certainly used these characters to play many different roles over time. This has made the task of interpreting the specific meaning of the bull and the horse very tough. Their relationship is a kind of ballet that was conceived in a variety of ways throughout Picasso's career."

In respond to that Art historian, Picasso said "...this bull is a bull and this horse is a horse... If you give a meaning to certain things in my paintings it may be very true, but it is not my idea to give this meaning. What ideas and conclusions you have got I obtained too, but instinctively, unconsciously. I make the painting for the painting. I paint the objects for what they are."

Picasso wanted to clarify that he painted the horse and the bull without any deep meaning. However, I'm on the side of that Art historian because I think there must be a meaning for each thing in paintings. From the psychological aspect, powerful inner forces motivate behaviors, every unconcious behaviors are pre-determined, although you may draw something that you do not give a meaning to it, it actually has a meaning, you draw that thing because of your  inborn instincts earlier experiences or it represents your mind. This is called psychic determinism from the psychodynamic Theories. So, I think Picasso paintedthe horse and the bull in Guernica that contained the meaning just like what art historian Patricia Failing said.

Guernica interests me because Picasso only used black, white, and grey, it gives me a feeling of hell and I am quite interested in surrealistic way of painting. The shape and posture of the bodies are quite strange that makes me want to know the meanings behind each thing in the painting.

My Question is that "Is it necessary to give a meaning to certain things in paintings?" or "Do you think there must be a meaning for each thing in paintings?"

Answer: Just like what I have mentioned, there must be a meaning for each thing in paintings because our behaviours are pre-determined by our inborn instinct and earlier experiences. For example, you may suddenly draw a sheep on your notebook during lesson, it seems that you draw it unconciously, without a meaning, however, it may represent that you are sleepy at that time, as we all have in mind that sheep represents sleep in our culture, so, that sheep actually has a meaning that you draw it because you want to express your sleepiness.

References:

"Guernica (painting)" - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guernica_(painting) (accessed 22 March 2011)

"Cubism" - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubism (accessed 18 March 2011)