Guernica: testimony of war

Episode of Series “Treasures of the world”.
A detailed documentary investigating the genesis and impact of Pablo Picasso’s influential work, Guernica. Picasso was approached to provide a centrepiece for the Spanish pavilion at the Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques des la vie Moderne 1937 in Paris. For months he searched for inspiration, plagued by turmoil in his personal life, and the political problems savaging Spain at the time. Then, on April 26th 1937, the Spanish village of Guernica was mercilessly reduced to rubble by tonnes of explosive which killed many. This display of military power, ordered by Franco to break resistance against nationalist forces, left seventy percent of the town destroyed, and attracted a large protest in Paris. Stunned by the stark monochromatic photographs of this destruction, Picasso began to map out the images for what would become his own interpretation of and reaction to this apocalyptic vision of war. The first drafts of the composition, the motifs which begin to take shape, and the final result of this bold political statement on the artists’s behalf are explored in great detail, utilising archival materials and interviews with art historians.