Guernica: The Biography of a Twentieth-Century Icon

Category: Books,Arts & Photography,History & Criticism

Guernica: The Biography of a Twentieth-Century Icon Details

From Publishers Weekly In the runup to the Iraq War, U.N. officials in New York hid a mural version of Pablo Picasso's painting depicting the 1936 fascist terror bombing of the Basque town of Gernika (as it is spelled in Basque) under a tasteful blue shroud—testifying to its continuing power. An acclaimed biographer of Gaudí, van Hensbergen turns in the definitive study of Picasso's antiwar masterpiece, which folds the disciplines of art criticism, political history and biography into a passionate, detailed and well-argued narrative. Beginning with a superb account of the work's genesis, both within the career of Picasso and against the terrible events of the Spanish Civil War, van Hensbergen not only helps us to understand the motifs and structures underlying the artist's great work but places them within the context of his life as a Spaniard in exile. The subsequent "career" of the work is also illuminated, from its journey across the Atlantic—where it became a pivotal influence on postwar American painting—to its resonance as a symbol of resistance to the long reign of General Franco and its place in the national reconciliations that took place after Franco's death. To be an icon of any kind is to court the risk of overfamiliarity; van Hensbergen's beautifully written and usefully illustrated book restores the lustrous and terrible beauty of a major cultural work. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Read more From Booklist On April 26, 1937, a fleet of German bombers, at the behest of the Spanish fascists, destroyed the Basque town of Gernika. It was a tragic episode in the Spanish civil war and is not often acknowledged, as it is here, as an opening move in World War II. The carnage and heartache moved the Spanish expatriate Pablo Picasso to create, within a matter of weeks, an overwhelming canvas evoking the senseless violence of war. All black, white, and gray, his Guernica riveted and repelled with its broken bodies and silent screams. How the huge painting "symbolized a requiem for an entire generation" is part of the story van Hensbergen recounts in this accomplished and highly readable piece of art history. He traces the mural's extraordinary journey from Picasso's Paris studio into the cultural stream as a touchstone of contemporary art, a political litmus test, and, ultimately, a tool, four decades later, for healing a divided Spain. Steve PaulCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved Read more See all Editorial Reviews

Reviews

To understand the making of this iconic painting, and the man who created it, one has to know the sociopolitical reality out of which it was born. The author painstakingly creates the grim realities of 1930s Spain and Europe, with the 'inevitable' rise of Fascism (based on choices made). That this painting still matters is underscored by world events today, but if we learn some of the lessons contained within this well written and researched book, the continued slaughter of our species on a large scale need not be inevitable.

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